


Georgia on my Mind

by literal_fandom_trash



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Blood, F/M, Gore, Mentions of Suicide, Rick's daughter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-09-08 07:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 58,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8836099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literal_fandom_trash/pseuds/literal_fandom_trash
Summary: Georgia is Rick’s oldest daughter from a previous relationship. This is the story of how she survives the zombie apocalypse, fight walkers, bonds with her new family, and finds love. (Is that too cheesy?)





	1. I Shot the Sheriff

I'm one hundred percent convinced that statistics class are derived straight from Hell. Seriously, who puts seniors through the torture of having their last class if the day be a math class? I can't wait for the next two weeks to pass so I can go camping with just my dad for a weekend for my 18th birthday. But until then I was stuck in another 45 min of dry lecture. What I wouldn't give to have Dad randomly call me out of class right now.

"Miss. Grimes, you're needed in the office," My teacher Ms. Kay, said. Well that's convenient. I was so zoned out in class that I didn't even hear the phone ring.

"Um...do I need to bring my stuff?" I asked as I started to stand up.

"Yes. Your mother is here to pick you up," Ms. Kay said. I internally rolled my eyes as I gather up my stuff. I hated that they called Lori my mom. It was in one ear and out the other with these people. She's my stepmom! Not that I really cared, I hated my biological mom and my stepmom equally. According to my dad my "real" mom had never even held me, just gave me to my dad as soon as I was born and walked out of our life. As for Lori, she was the only mother I have ever known and she was nice enough, but she always seemed more like an aunt than a mother. And I don't think she really loves my dad. Plus, she has her own kid with my dad, my awesome little brother Carl, who kinda takes precedent in Lori's life. Before I knew it my legs had carried me down the hallways of my high school and straight to the door of the office. I opened the door and poked my head in and saw Lori who looked like she had been crying.

"Hey Lori, what's going on?" I asked. She jumped up and ran over to hug me. I awkwardly wrapped my arms around her, not really knowing what the hug was for.

"Oh Georgia! It's just awful. Come on, I'll explain everything on the way to pick up your brother," She said into my hair. That's another reason I don't love Lori: all my friends and Carl call me JoJo and my dad always calls me Peaches or his Little Peach, but never Georgia unless I have done something wrong and yet Lori insist that that was the name my dad chose for me so that is what she would call me.

We walked out to the car and I went to climb in the front only to see my dad's best friend and partner, Shane, sitting in front. I suddenly felt sick, Lori said that something terrible and Shane is here then something must have happened to my dad while he was on patrol.

"What is it? What's happened?" I asked suddenly scared.

"Everything's fine. You're dad has just been shot in the abdomen and is at the hospital getting emergency surgery," Shane calmly explained.

I felt all the blood drain from my face and my ears started ringing. I always knew there was a risk of this since my dad was the sheriff, but I never thought anything would actually happen to him. I sat silently in the car the whole way to the elementary school. Lori parked the car and climbed out to go find Carl while Shane and I stayed back.

"Um...uhh...Ya know, you're dad is going to be just fine," Shane said. I know that he was hurting too, he was good friends with my dad, but I really didn't want to hear it.

"Please stop trying to cheer me up," I begged. I looked out the window and saw Lori and Carl walking towards the car, both with tears in their eyes.

When Carl climbed into the backseat I leaned across the middle seat and wrapped him in a big hug both of us quietly crying as we drove towards the hospital.

..........

When we finally arrive at the hospital, Shane offers to park the car so we can go inside. We walked up to the check in station only to find that Dad was still in surgery, but would be out shortly. I was sitting in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs clutching my backpack which I all of a sudden couldn't put down. Carl had fallen asleep leaning on my since Lori was busy being wrapped up in Shane's and filling out paperwork. Honestly, this last month Lori and my dad have been fighting so much that I thought they were going to get a divorce and now she's the most loving, caring, faithful wife in the world! I heard footsteps in the hallway by the waiting room and looked up, hoping it would be my dad's doctor saying everything was fine, but whoever it was just walked past us. I sighed and looked down at my sandals, I didn't know what I would do without my dad. He was my best friend and he had always been there for me, even when my mom wanted to give me up or get rid of me, he was the one who convinced her to have me so he could raise me. That was another thing, I'm not 18 for another two weeks, does that make Lori my legal guardian? Will she kick me out the minute my birthday comes? I was still in high school and had a part time job at a store downtown, I couldn't be by myself. I guess I could crash with best friend Jenna.

Why am I even thinking this! My dad was going to be fine and we would go camping in two weeks, and he would let me drive his sheriff car on the weekends, and he would stay up all night and listen to me complain about school, and college, and friends and tell me "everything will be okay, Peaches."

The doctor walking into the room broke me out of my musing. I shook Carl walk and all four of us gathered together around the doctor.

"He made it, but he lost a lot of blood. He's in a coma right now and we don't when when or if he will wake up," The doctor said.

"Well, can we go see him?" I asked.

"Of course. I'll show you to his room, but I must ask the only immediate family be in the room right now," I turned to look at Shane who looked angry at the knowledge that he couldn't go into the room. Lori turned around to talk to Shane so I grabbed Carl's hand and motioned for the doctor to show us the way to our dad's room. We walked silently behind the doctor until we reached the door with the name Rick Grimes written on the whiteboard hanging on it. I gave Carl's hand a squeeze as the doctor opened the door and we saw our dad lying in the bed hooked up to a bunch of machines.

"Are we allowed to hold his hand?" I asked.

"Of course. We encourage holding hands and talking to the patient," The doctor said. I waited for Carl to walk over to our dad first, but he stayed glued to my side so I walked into the room and grabbed on of the chair that was against a wall, pulling it over to my dad's bedside and sitting down. Carl seemed to follow my lead.

"So, what is his current condition? How long will he be like this?" I heard Lori ask as she entered the room.

"Well the surgery was successful in removing the bullet and stopping the internal bleeding. And as you can see he's breathing on his own, all of which are good signs. However, we don't know the full extent of what the amount of blood he lost has don't to his body. At this point we just have to wait and see, but I have every faith that he will wake up." The doctor explained looking over the chart in his hands.

I was so relieved to hear that my dad had a good chance of waking up soon. Lori sat down across from Carl and me and grabbed my dad's other hand and we sat there is silence, our little broken, pieced back together family.

..........

Lori let Carl and me stay home from school for a few days so we could still visit dad during visiting hours and not be bombarded with questions about the county sheriff from everyone. Plus, there was a strange virus going around right now and Lori didn't want more than one family member in the hospital at a time. After a few days they had to shut the school down and we weren't allowed back into the hospital until this virus was under control. Shane went and visited Dad for us as often as he could. Before we knew it two weeks had passed and I was being woken up by Carl.

"Happy birthday, JoJo!" He yelled. I shot up in bed when he yelled in my ear.

"Hey little man! Thank you! Should we go have some of your mom's pancakes?" I asked and Carl made a face. Lori made the worst pancakes every Sunday morning and for everyone's birthday, but we never complained, at least not to her face. Carl and I bravely walked into the kitchen wer there was the scent of slightly burning batter in the air and several presents piled on the kitchen table.

"Hey Miss Grown-Up! Happy 18th birthday!" Lori said wrapping me in the a hug. "Now, sit down and you can start opening presents, I'll have breakfast up in a minute. Don't open the one from your dad and me until I get there," She called as she walked back to the stove.

I looked over at Carl, "Which one should I open first?"

"That one." He pointed to a small rectangle in the middle, "That one's from me."

I grabbed it and eagerly ripped the wrapping paper off. Inside was the newest James Brown book, my favorite author. I smiled wide and grabbed Carl in a one armed hug.

"Thanks so much!" I said.

I opened the rest of my gift which consisted of more books, gift cards, and some cute dresses and shirts. I loved all of them, but I kept eyeing the present Lori had told me I couldn't open yet. I had an idea of what it was and I _really_ wanted it.

Lori walked into the kitchen with a plate full of pancakes one of which had eighteen candles in it. She set them down in front of me and lit the candles.

"Okay. We're gonna sing happy birthday then you can open your Dad and my present." Lori said.

They sang a slightly off key version of happy birthday and Carl said, "Make a wish." before I blew the candles out. I wished that my Dad would get better soon.

"Alright," Lori said grabbing the large box that was sitting in the corner, "Here you go. I hope you like it." She said. I quickly ripped the paper off and squealed when I saw that laid inside. A beautiful new longbow! I have been doing archery since I was ten years old and when I started high school I joined the school team; I was state ranked by sophomore year and nationally ranked as of this year. I have several compact bows and a short bow, but I had always wanted a longbow!

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I shouted, jumping out of my chair and running to hug Lori.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." She said hugging me back.

..........

Later that day we were all sitting around the livingroom waiting for visiting hours to start at the hospital when there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." I yelled and I walked over to the door. I opened it and saw my best friend Jenna's older brother Josh standing there. Josh was about two years older than me and I had a bit of a crush on him. He was going to Georgia State to be a surgeon, he was kind, and cute. "Hey Josh." I said dreamily.

"Hey JoJo! Happy birthday. Jenna's got that awful sickness goin' round and asked me to give you this." He said holding out a present.

"Thank you so much! I'll stop by to see Jenna later today. Tell her I say thanks." I said. I expected Josh to leave, but he stayed standing in the doorway, "Was there something else?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was a present for you too." He said. He looked at the ground for a minute before looking back up and quickly pressing his lips to mine. "Happy birthday JoJo." He whispered. I didn't even realiser that my eyes had closed until I opened them to find Josh gone. I closed the front door and rushed to my bedroom, and threw the present onto the bed and started squealing and jumping around. My first kiss! And it was from Josh! First the longbow and now this? Best birthday ever.

I looked at the present that was laying on my bed and quickly ripped it open. Inside was a beautiful leather book with clean, crisp white pages inside. I was in dire need of a new journal, I wanted to be an author when I grew up and Jenna knew I had already filled all of my other notebooks and journals with stories and novels and ideas.

Nothing could put a damper on my mood today.

..........

"Attention: This is a message from the emergency broadcast system. Deadly virus has broken out in parts of Georgia. All citizens are to head to Atlanta." The message said.

"Hey Lori!" I called and she walked into the livingroom with some backpacks and luggage.

"Sean just called. There's some disease spreading and it's...doing something strange to people. We need to pack up and leave. Now!" Lori said throwing bags at us.

I ran into my room and started throwing things into my bags.

"JoJo? What do I pack?" I heard Carl ask.

I turned and saw him standing in the doorway of my room holding two backpacks. I put my stuff down on my bed and walked into his room.

"Put clothes into one bag and toys, games, and books in the other. Pack heavy and light clothes we don't know how long we'll be stuck in Atlanta or what the conditions will be." I said pulling some jackets out of his closet. "Can you take it from here?" I asked and Carl nodded.

I went back into my room and started throwing everything into my backpack. I grabbed all of the gifts I just got and a couple pairs of jeans and shorts then I went into the bathroom and cleared out my makeup, meds, and other essentials.

"JoJo! Come on!" I heard Lori call. I already had a pair of converse on so I reached into my closet and grabbed a pair of hiking boots before running out of my bedroom. Right as I stepped out into the hallway, I turned and ran back into my room and grabbed my new bow and a quiver of arrows. Shane was standing in the front doorway ushering Lori and Carl out the door.

As we were getting into the car we started hearing car alarms and gunshots go off. "What's going on?" I asked.

"I'll explain later. We gotta get to the hospital!" Shane said getting into the driver's seat and setting off. After a few blocks I started seeing people limping through the streets with pale, expressionless faces. Carl screamed next to me and I and covered my mouth as I saw a one of the sick looking people taking a bit out of someone. As we continued to drive we saw more and more of this until we finally reached the front of the hospital which had bodies piled in front of it at armed guards everywhere.

"Alright. You three stay here. I'll go get Rick." Shane said climbing out of the car.

"Carl, Georgia. Try not to look." Lori urged us. We sat in silence looking everywhere, but at the gruesome scene outside. The radio continuously played the message telling everyone to evacuate to Atlanta. I was staring so hard at the ground that I didn't see Shane approaching until he was opening the car door.

"Where's Dad?" I immediately asked. Shane didn't answer just started driving.

"Shane! Stop the car! Where's Rick?" Lori snapped.

I could see Shane getting angry as Carl, Lori, and I peppered him with questions, "He's dead!Okay?"

Everyone sat in silence for a moment before Sane just repeated, "He dead. I'm sorry."

I felt tears running down my face and looked over at Carl who was in a similar state. The next hour and half was silent except for the sound of sniffling and quiet sobs. I looked out the window occasionally and saw more of the creatures walking around and more cars with all of their things piled in driving towards the city. Army rangers were everywhere directing people where to go, but I was numb to everything, all I could think of was my dad dying alone in a hospital room. Did the gunshot kill him, the monsters, the army, was he in pain, was he conscious? I started crying harder as all these thought swirled around in my head and Shane parked the car where the man in uniform told him too. We were in front of a large tent filled with other families seeking refuge from whatever those things out there were. I climbed out of the car, throwing my backpack across my back and hugging my bow to my chest as I walked into the tent that would be my new home for the next few days.

..........

I was asleep on one of the cots that had been provided for us when I felt someone started shaking my shoulders.

"JoJo. Come on. Wake up." I heard a deep, rough voice say .

"Dad?" I asked not opening my eyes. I couldn't figure out why my Dad would be trying to wake me up. All of a sudden I remembered what had happened to my Dad and my eyes shot open, I saw Shane standing over my bed with a heart broken expression on his face. "What's going on?" I asked groggily.

"We're leaving. Your stuff's already in the car lets go!" He said and he started walking out of the tent.

"Wait, what?" I asked jumping up and following him.

"The virus broke out. These soldiers think they can control it, but they can't. Atlanta is going to fall!"

I opened my mouth to argue, but was interrupted by several gunshots and screaming. Shane grabbed my arm and started dragging me to the car. We got in and Shane floored the gas taking off towards the highway. A few other groups had acted as fast as us so the road home was fairly empty.

"Where are we going?" Lori asked. I heard Shane sigh.

"I don't know. We'll figure something out." He said. We couldn't go home, the town was overrun and Atlanta was about to suffer the same fate. I looked over at Carl who had already fallen back asleep before I was slammed into the passenger seat headrest.

"Ow!" I cried. I looked out the front window and saw several people next to an RV flagging our car down. There was an older man in a Hawaiian shirt and fisherman's hat, two young blond girls who looked like they might be related, but there was an obvious age gap, and a young guy in a baseball hat who looked like he was Asian, but I couldn't figure out what exactly what decent.

Shane pulled the car over and climbed out and I had a feeling we were going to be spending the rest of the night here.


	2. Daddy Dearest

Turns out my hunch was correct. That was two days ago and more people had joined us since then. I learned that Dale, the old man who owned the RV, had pulled over when his car had started to die and the two girls, Amy and Andrea had pulled over to help him. None of them had anywhere to go and decided that an empty field was as good a place as any to be until they figured things out. Glenn, the funny ex-pizza delivery boy had joined them a few hours before Shane had pulled the car over. During this time, we learned many things: walkers, since they were the walking dead, were terrifying, they were attracted to noise, and could only be killed by a blow to the head. We had to find that out the hard way one night. Since then several other groups had joined our little camp. There was T-Dog and his wife Jackie, Jim, Morales and his family, Carol, her awful husband Ed and their sweet little girl Sophia.

Then _they_ showed up. Merel and Daryl Dixon, the two loud mouth, ass-hole red necks. Well, Merel was any ways, Daryl didn't talk much. The group had been hesitant to accept that at first, which I thought was strange since Merel had guns and Daryl had a crossbow, which I was insanely jealous of, but after they, or rather Daryl, offered their hunting skills the group was more than happy to accept the Dixon brothers if it meant food that wasn't from a can. I didn't have the honor of a personal encounter with them for a few days until Carol asked if I could go to their tent that was pitched on the outskirts of the camp to see if they needed any laundry done. I took a deep breath as I approached their tent.

"Well hey there Chickadee. What's a pretty lil' thang like ya doin' over here with Ole Merel." I heard a rough, rude voice say as the older brother came out of the tent and approached me. I wish I could say I threw an amazing comeback at him, or grabbed the knife Shane made me carry and threatened him, but instead I froze in place.

"Leave her alone, Merel. What da ya need, girl?" Daryl asked coming out of the tent as well. Merel huffed and walked into the woods.

I wanted to open my mouth and answer, but I was more intimidated by Daryl than I was Merel. At least with Merel I knew what kinda man he was, he was a racist, sexist, pig, but Daryl was quiet, brooding...and really attractive. With his dark blond hair, scruffy facial hair, and blue eyes that were a few shades lighter than my own, not to mention his amazing muscle and it didn't help that he always walked around in sleeveless shirts and his leather vest with wings on the back of it.

Every time I looked at him I got tongue tied and started blushing, but finally I muttered, "Um...laundry. They sent me to get laundry."

"Laundry?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah. Do you guys need any laundry done?" I asked shyly looking down at my feet.

Daryl grunted and walked into his tent. I stood there completely unsure of what to do, until Daryl reemerged carrying an armful of laundry. He came over and dropped the clothes into my outstretched arms, which brushed against his impressive arm muscles and I felt my face heat up again. As soon as I had a grip on the laundry Daryl grunted and walked back to the tent and I scampered back down to the river to give Carol the clothes.

After that I went to the tent that Carl and I were sharing which I had to myself for a few moments and started crying. I cried over the world going to Hell, I cried over living in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers, but mostly I cried because I missed my dad. I would take this world with no complaints if it meant I could have my dad hug me and call me "Peaches" one more time. I hated even more that I seemed to be the only one bothered by the fact that Dad was gone. Carl got upset sometimes, but Lori and Shane were doing a good job of keeping him happy and too busy to notice. Lori seemed upset the first few days, but I noticed her slowly cosying up to Shane more and more, the two were practically inseparable. I knew Lori and Dad's marriage hadn't been okay for a while, but I had hoped she would at least be upset for more than a few weeks before moving on.

I heard movement outside the tent and I quickly wiped my eyes, grabbed my bow, and headed out into the woods. I figured I could get some target practice in and maybe even catch something for dinner. I had never actually hunted with my bow before, but in my last archery tournament I had to shoot moving targets and it couldn't be that much harder. I found a clearing that had several fallen trees in the nearby area and used my knife to cut off a large piece of bark and lean it against the tree then I stepped back about 25 feet and raised my bow. Immediately I could tell that it was the correct size and weight, but that it needed to be tightened.

"Whatta ya doin'?" I heard a gruff voice say and I swung around with my bow in my arm and pointed it at the voice. "Watch it, woman. Yer gonna get someone killed!" Daryl said.

"Don't you know better than to sneak up on someone who's armed?" I asked and I was fairly impressed with myself for not only getting a full sentence out, but for also having some strength and sass behind it.

"Never got yer name." Daryl pointed out.

"Oh...um, my name's Georgia, but...um...everyone calls me JoJo." I stumbled out.

"JoJo...I didn't know ya could shoot." He said pointing at my longbow which I had lowered to my side.

I stood there, tensed up and unsure of what to say. "....I LIKE YOUR CROSSBOW." I practically shouted. Daryl looked surprised by my outburst and I felt my whole face heat up and start blushing. Daryl gave me what I think was a positive grunt in response before walking away leaving me to die from my embarrassment in peace.

..........

About a two weeks into our stay at the rock quarry we were running low on supplies so Glenn, Andrea, T-Dog, Jacqui, Morales, and Merel were selected to go on a run to Atlanta in search of supplies, I had volunteered to go as well, but Shane and Lori shot me down immediately. I was upset, but I understood where they were coming from, they didn't want to lose another family member so soon after Dad. They headed out to Atlanta and everyone still at the camp had to work twice as hard to make up for the fact we were missing five people for the next few days. Lori, Shane, Carl and I were sitting around the campfire pit and Lori was attempting to give Carl a haircut.

"Baby the more you fidget the longer it takes." She said and I laughed as Carl pouted. "Georgia, honey, want me to do yours next?" She asked. I grabbed a piece of my dark brown hair in my fingers and thought about it. I had always loved having long hair, but maybe having it go past my shoulders wasn't ideal right now.

"Maybe just the split ends." I said and Lori nodded.

"Okay. Carl sit still!" Lori snapped.

"I'm trying." Carl whined.

"You think this is bad, wait until you start shaving. It stings. The comes you'll be wishing for one of your Mama's haircuts." Shane said cleaning one of the guns. I saw Carl smile, it had been awhile since he had. He was obviously upset by Dad's death, but he was trying to be brave and not cry in front of anyone. "Tell ya what, you just get through this with some manly dignity and tomorrow I'll show you something special. I will teach you to catch frogs." Shane promised and I had to hold back my laughter since I knew what he was up to. I had known Shane my whole life, he and my dad started working at the station at the same time and I practically lived there until I started going to school. Dad, Shane, and everyone else taught me everything they learned in the academy so I knew how to shoot a gun, interrogate a witness, and handcuff someone three ways before I could read. Some nights when Dad had to work late, Shane would watch me and one of the many antics we got up to was catching frogs.

"I've caught a frog before." Carl said proudly.

"I said frogs, plural. And it is an art my friend, not to be taken lightly. There are ways and means few people know about. And I am willing to share my secrets." Shane teased. Carl turned around to look at Lori.

"Oh, I'm a girl. You talk to him." She said pretending to be serious.

Carl looked over at me, "I've already learned Shane's frog catching secrets. Now it's your turn." I said and Carl smiled. It was nice to see him acting like a kid again.

"It's a one time offer, Bud. Not to be repeated." Shane said.

"Why do we need frogs, plural?" Carl asked.

"You ever heard of frog legs?" Shane asked sarascitally.

"Ew!" Lori, Carl, and I said.

"No! Yum! We get down to that last can of beans and you are going to be loving them frog legs."

"I doubt that." I said.

"Don't listen to your sister. You and me, we'll be heros. Feeding these people Cajun-style Kermit legs. Heros! Spoken of in song and legend. You and me, Shane and Carl." Shane said.

Carl looked over at me, "Don't look at me, I'm not the one who's gonna to be a hero." I said. Suddenly I heard a car alarm go off in the distance which wasn't unusual, sometimes the walkers would bump into an abandoned car and set it off, but these seemed to be getting louder. I stood up and walked towards the part of the quarry that was by the road and saw a bright red sports car zooming towards us with the lights flashing.

"What the Hell is that idiot doing?" I muttered. I turned around to look at Dale who was on watch on top of the RV, but he didn't seem to know what it was either. Several more people had gathered around to watch the spectacle.

"Is it them? Are they back?" Amy asked nervously and I remembered that Andrea had gone on this run. A cherry red Mustang pulled up by the RV and the other cars and a very excited Glenn climbed out.

"Holy crap! Turn that damn thing off!" Dale yelled.

"I don't know how?" Glenn said. Amy ran up to him and started pestering with question while everyone tried to turn the car off. I turned my eyes back to the road to see if the rest of the group was coming back.

Glenn walked up to me and looked with me, "I got a cool car." He said.

"Yeah, I noticed. So did everyone else in a twenty mile radius." I said teasingly and Glenn shoved my shoulder. "How'd the run go?"

"Good. Everyone's fine...Except Merel." He confessed. I whipped my head around to stare at him.

"Daryl's gonna be pissed." I warned.

"I know. Maybe if you're there he'll go easy." He said and I raised my eyebrow at him, "Well, you're the one person here he at least tolerates! I mean look at you! You're all cute and little, no one can be mad at that!"

I saw a truck with everyone else from the run pull up and I walked over to help them unload. I watched as everyone had a cheerful reunion with their loved ones and I felt a pang in my chest and I turned around and saw Lori bending down to give Carl, who had tears in his eyes, a hug.

"Hey! Helicopter Boy! Come say hi!" Morales yelled towards the truck as he hugged his wife and kids and I turned to see who the new guy was. My heart froze as I saw a man with dark hair in a Sheriff uniform climb out of the car, he looked up and I saw blue eyes identical to mine looking around at everyone.

"Dad!" I screamed and ran towards him. I saw him take off towards me as well and heard Carl right behind me. Dad grabbed us in his arms and the three of us stood there crying. I felt Dad kiss the top of my head and I buried my face in his chest and I felt Lori press up behind me as we all just cried and hugged each other.

..........

Later that night most of the group was sitting around the campfire listening to Dad tell the story of how he found us. Lori and I were still tucked into his sides while Carl was leaning back on his chest.

"...Disoriented. That's the best way I can describe it. I felt so many things. But disoriented comes the closest I think." Dad said.

"Words can be meager. Sometimes they fall short." Dale, ever the cryptic, said.

"It felt like I had been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." Dad explained.

"Mom said you died." Carl said quietly.

"We went to the hospital to get you, but Shane said you were already dead." I confirmed.

"Well, they had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." Dad said, he ran his finger through Carl's hair and kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes, relishing my Dad's touch before opening them and looking into the fire.

"When things started to get really bad, they told us at the hospital that they were gonna Medvac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori explained.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell. And from the look of that hospital it got overrun." Dad said.

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out." Sahne said.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Dad said with honesty pouring off of him.

"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale said. Ed walked over and threw another log on to the fire and we all turned to him in surprise. Sure it was cold, but the light was going to attract walkers.

"Hey, Ed man, you wanna rethink that log?" Shane asked

"It's cold." He snapped and I saw Carol and Sophia tense up out of the corner of my eye.

"Cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane said and I pushed myself further into my Dad's hold, not liking where this was going.

"I said. It's cold." Ed said firmly. "You should mind your own business for once." Shane stood up and pulled the log out of the fire and I immediately felt the lack of heat it was providing.

"Hey Carol, Sophia. How are y'all this evening?" Shane asked politely while staring Ed down. Carol reacher up and started fidgeting with her ear which was completely visible due to her near buzz cut hair. I didn't know for sure, but I figured she had it short so Ed didn't have anything to drag her by, the abusive bastard.

"We're fine. Sorry about the fire." She said.

"No apology needed. You two have a good night now." Shane said.

Shane Sat back down and everyone was silent for a moment, "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He's not gonna be happy about his brother being left behind." Dale said and I felt my cheeks heat up at the mention of Daryl's name. I heard Glenn cough and looked over to see him smiling at me, I had stupidly told him about my crush on Daryl and he was now relentlessly teasing me.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the keys, it's on me." T-Dog said.

"I cuffed him, it's on me." Dad argued.

"It's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn pointed out.

"That's not true. Daryl will yell at you and hate you regardless of race, gender, or age." I defended.

"I did what I did, Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog.

"We could lie." Amy suggested.

"Or we could tell the truth. Merel was out of control. Something had to be done or he would have gotten us killed." Andrea said, "You're Dad did what was necessary and if Merel got left behind that is no one's fault, but Merel's." She said looking at me. Was it completely obvious to everyone that I liked this guy!?

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asked. "I don't see a rational discussion in that do you? Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." Dale said. Daryl had left the same day the group went to Atlanta to see if he could find anything for the group to eat.

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog said. "But I locked the door and that staircase is narrow. I bet Merel's still alive and chained to that roof."

"Um..guys?" I said and all eyes turned to me, "I can talk to Daryl when he gets back if you want? Or at least distract him enough so you guys can finish arguing over who is going to take the blame."

"I'm in! You guys can talk about achry or something till we figure out a plan, plus Daryl hates you the least out of all of us, he won't be too mad." Glenn said.

"We'll talk about this more in the morning I think.' Lori said ending the conversation.

"There something going on I should know about?" Dad asked.

"Nothing Daddy. Daryl just has a really cool crossbow that I'm crazy jealous of and he like my longbow. We just talk shop, nothing more." I promised.

"That's right! I missed your birthday, didn't I? Well, I'm glad you like your present. You'll have to show me how good you are with it later." Dad said squeezing my shoulders as he hugged me tighter.

..........

The next morning I woke up and threw on some jeans, a flannel shirt, and my hiking boots before walking out of Carl and my tent. I saw Glenn standing at the entrance to the quarry and went to go talk to him went to go talk to him while fighting my hair into two braids.

"Hey Glenn." I called out as I approached, but he didn't answer and as I approached I saw why; the men at the camp were stipping the Mustang for parts.

"Look at them. Vultures." Glenn pouted. "Yeah, go on! Strip it clean!"

"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry Glenn." Dale said pulling parts of the engine.

"Don't worry Glenn. One day we'll rip off a really nice new Ferrari and maybe this time I can even drive it!" I suggested.

"Yes on the Ferrari. No on you driving." Glenn said trying to stay angry, but failing miserably. "I thought I'd get to drive it for a few more days."

"So, I wanted to talk to you about last night. I think we're right about me talking to Daryl, but Lori and Shane don't like me talking to him or Merel and they're gonna try and stop me." I said tying off one of my braids.

"I'll cover you. Don't worry about it. Plus. I think Shane's going too be too busy pouting now that he's not the only man in Lori's life." He said then his face paled, "I'm so sorry JoJo, I didn't men that.

"No! You're right! Those two have been far too cozy lately and I think they have, or had, a thing going on. But, Shane'll get over it. He's my Dad's best friend and he's family." I said confidently.

"Morning Peaches. Morning Glenn." I heard my Dad call behind us and Glenn gave me a confused look at the nickname.

"Morning Daddy!" I said giving him a hug, "You sure slept a long time for someone who's been in a coma for a month."

"Hush you! Now, are you ready to show me this bow of yours in action?" He asked and I smiled and ran to grab my bow. As soon as I had it in my hand I heard Carl and several other kids scream; I took off running in that direction along with several other people and saw that none of the kids were hurt, but that there was a walker feeding on a dead deer near our camp. I raised by bow and fired at it hitting it straight in the head.

"I think your string needs to be tightened, there was too much wobble in the release, but other than that, excellent shot and you use the bow well." Dad critiqued, he was always my biggest fan and my unofficial coach for archery.

"We've never had one this close. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale said.

"Well they're running out of food in the city." Jim guessed. I looked down at the doe and realised there were two bolts buried in it's side.

"Uh oh." I muttered and a branch snapped nearby.

"Son of a bitch! That's my deer!" Daryl complained as he entered the clearing with the rest of us. He was in his usual sleeveless top, with his crossbow, and a rope of rabbit and squirrel slung over his shoulder. My Dad looked over at me as he figured out who this was.

Daryl walked up to the deer and started kicking it's side, "Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard."

"Calm down son, that's not helping." Dale said and Daryl got right up in his face.

"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take your stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?" Daryl snapped. I went to pull my arrow out of the walker's skull and he turned to look at me.

"What are you doing with my bolt?" He asked.

I stood there in shock that Daryl had spoken to me before conjuring up, "It's my arrow, not your bolt." and I wiped the blood off on my jeans before putting the arrow back in my quiver.

Daryl nodded and went to retrieve his own bolts, "I've been tracking this deer for miles, gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"I would not risk that." Shane advised.

"That's a damn shame. I got squirrel, 'bout a dozen or so, few rabbits. That'll have to do." Daryl said and he turned away to head towards the camp passing by me in the process, "Nice shot by the way." I felt myself preen and blush at the praise while my dad just raised an eyebrow at me.   


	3. The Volunteer

I followed behind Daryl with all the other men as we headed back to camp. It didn't escape my notice that I was the youngest person there and the only girl, but I knew how to shoot a gun and a bow, I always had my knife with me, and Shane and Lori said as soon as we have guns to spare from watch duty I can carry on with me.

"Merel!" I heard Daryl call up ahead and my face paled as I realized that I really didn't want to be the one to tell him his brother was handcuffed to a roof in Atlanta, but it would probably be best coming from me. I saw everyone standing in the shade of the RV staring at us as we approached the camp.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. We need to talk to you." Shane said.

"About what?" Daryl asked.

"About Merel." Shane answered. He turned to look at me and gave me a signal to wait.

Daryl started pacing and I could tell his anger was simmering just beneath the surface, "He dead?"

"We're not sure." Shane confessed.

"He either is or he ain't." Daryl snapped and Shane motioned me forward.

"Daryl..." I started.

"Daryl, my name is Rick Grimes. You're brother was a danger to us all so I handcuffed him on a roof, hook him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Dad stepped in and Glenn looked over at me in shock, we hadn't expected my dad to jump in.

"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you LEFT HIM THERE!?!?" Daryl yelled. I held my breath as I waited for my dad to answer.

"Yeah." He said simply. Daryl threw the string of squirrels and rabbits at him and then lunged forward. Shane stepped in instantly and blocked Daryl who then pulled out a knife.

"Hey watch the knife!" T-Dog said.

"Daryl! Stop it!" I yelled.

"Quiet woman!" He yelled, which distracted him long enough for Daryl to put him in a choke hold and Dad disarmed him.

"Alright. That's enough." Dad said.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl yelled. "Chokehold is illegal!"

"Yeah, well you can file a complaint." Sane sassed.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Think we can manage that?" Dad asked in full on Sheriff mode.

Daryl nodded and Shane let him go, "Good. Now, what I did was not on a whim. Your brother doesn't work or play well with others." Dad said.

"It wasn't Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog confessed.

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl snapped.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain." T-Dog sassed.

"To Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so's I can go get him." Daryl demanded.

"He'll show you, isn't that right." Lori said surprising me.

"I'm going back." Dad confirmed before walking towards his tent. Shane, Lori, and I followed.

"Dad, I wanna help. I want to go with you." I said standing up. Instantly I heard Lori and Shane start saying how I shouldn't go.

"You are not going out there, Georgia!" Lori said.

"Daddy, you know I can do this. I'm a good shot with a gun and a bow, I have a knife, I've killed walkers before, and I'll be with you the whole time." I argued.

"Well, JoJo, you're right. You are a very smart and capable young lady and you're eighteen so really, I can't stop you." Dad said and I grinned. Lori and Shane started complaining behind me, "However! You've only been eighteen for two weeks and I'm your father so you're not going." He finished.

"Dad that's not fair!" I complained.

"Georgia May Grimes, I will not fight with you about this. I'm still your father and I say you aren't going." He said and I knew he meant business since he used my full name. I crossed my arms and went off to sulk.

"Did I just hear that yer last name's Grimes?" I heard Daryl say me. I turned to look at him gathering his crossbow and other weapons.

"Yes?" I answered not sure where this was going.

"So, yer Dad's the one who left my brother handcuffed to some roof?" He snapped.

"I guess...I'm really sorry?" I said even though I wasn't quite sure why I was apologizing for something my dad did when I wasn't there. Daryl stared at me and grunt. I heard Dad and Shane coming up the hill before I saw them.

"Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merel Dixon?" Shane asked.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl warned. I couldn't help, but notice he wasn't nearly as distraught as I thought he would be. If someone had left Carl handcuffed to a roof I would be a mess, crying and screaming at everyone.

"No, I did. Douchebag is what I meant." Shane said.

"So you and Daryl are going to take on all of Atlanta? That's your big plan?" I asked.

"Georgia May." Lori warned.

Dad turned and look at Glenn with a hopeful expression, "Oh come on." Glenn sighed.

"You know the way. You've been there before, in and out no problem you said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would to." Dad said pointing at Lori who looked pissed that Dad was leaving.

"Fine, but only if JoJo comes too." Glenn bargended and I perked up.

"Come on! It's not enough you're risking three men's lives, now you're gonna risk your daughter's?" Shane asked. Dad looked at the ground like he was really considering it.

"Four men. I'm coming too." T-Dog said.

"My day just keeps getting better and better, don't it? Tell ya what, the girl comes with us and I won't bitch 'bout the idiot who left him chained up in the first comin' with us." Daryl said.

"So you'd rather have some five foot little girl watching your back than me?" T-Dog asked.

"Excuse me, I'm eighteen, 5'3, and a state ranked archer. Plus I know how to use a gun and a knife." I stated.

"Yeah, I want her with us." Glenn said.

"Will everyone stop offering up my daughter as a bargaining chip!" Dad yelled. He sighed and looked down at the ground, "Peaches, this is your choice. You don't have to do this." He said.

I looked at the ground and took a deep breath. I wanted to help and I knew I was capable. I was getting cabin fever at camp, but going on a run to a walker infested city wasn't exactly high on my bucket list; but if this is the world we are going to live in I was going to need to know how to survive in those situations.

"I'll do it." I said confidently to the group.

Dad closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose like he always did when he was making big decisions, "You stay by my side the whole time and do everything I say." He told me and I nodded.

"It's not just five. You're puttin' every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. C'mon man, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're movin' out of the cities. They come back and we need every able body we got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp." Shane argued.

"Seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Dad said.

"Right. The guns." Glenn said and I scrunched my brow in confusion.

"What guns?" Shane asked.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, and over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sittin' there on the street waitin' to be picked up." Dad said.

"Ammo?" Shane asked.

"700 rounds, assorted." Dad said and I gave a low whistle at the number. That was an awful lot of firepower in one bag.

"You went through Hell to find us. You just got here and now you're gonna turn around and leave? And take Georgia with you?" Lori asked.

"Dad, I don't want you and JoJo to go." Carl said and I found myself questioning my decision to go. I wrapped my arm around him, pulling him into a tight side hug.

"To Hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merel Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with those guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori said standing up.

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy." Dad said and Lori pointed at were Carl and I were sitting. "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn them." Dad explained.

"What's stopping you?" Lori asked.

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one, our plan was to connect when they got closer." Dad said before walking away.

I looked over at Carl who was looking at the ground, trying to hide how upset he was, "Hey. Dad and I are going to be right back. Make sure to catch a frog in my honor, okay?" I asked and Carl nodded before hugging me.

I got up and followed Dad, making sure I had my knife still strapped to my leg and my quiver across my back with my bow tight in my hand. Dad and T-Dog went to grab some bolt cutters from Dale while Glenn climbed in the driver's seat. I opened the other, but he stopped me.

"Oh no. Helicopter Boy is up her. You, T-Dog, and Daryl in the back." He said smirking. I glared at him before walking around to the back of the truck and climbing in. The ruck used to be a delivery truck so there were no seats in back; I sat down on the floor crossing my legs while Daryl paced the length of the truck bed. T-Dog got in and pulled down the door behind him, now the only source of light was the small window that should the driver's cabin. It was a quiet and awkward drive to Atlanta in the back of the car, not to mention hot since it must have been 100 degrees that day, and after about thirty minutes the car came to a stop.

"He better be okay when we find him. It's ma only word on the matter." Daryl said looking up from cleaning his crossbow.

"I told you, the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's going to get through that door is us." T-Dog said with certainty. I wiped the sweat from my brow, stood up and walked over to the roll up door, opening it and jumping out onto train tracks. We ran through the city, retracing the earlier run's steps.

We climbed through a hole in a chain link fence and Dad asked, "Merel first or guns?"

"Merel! We ain't even having this conversation." Daryl said.

"We are. Glenn, you know the geography. It's your call." Dad said gently.

"Merel's closet. The guns would mean doubling back. Merel first" Glenn explained.

We made it to the department store that Merel was chained to the roof of and Daryl and Dad entered first, scanning the store before motioning us forward. We went towards the door and heard scuffling and moaning, a walker came around the corner and I raised my bow.

"I got this. Damn, you one ugly shank." Daryl said pointing the crossbow and firing. I walked past him towards the staircase and poked my head in, listening for any walker noises and upon hearing nothing I motioned everyone forward. We ran up the stairs and T-Dog cut the chain holding the door closed with the bolt cutters. The minute it was open, Daryl shoved his way in front of everyone of to the roof.

"JoJo, stay behind me." My dad reminded me as we walked through the door.

"Merel!" He cried out. We followed Daryl out and looked at the stop where a pair of handcuffs were hangin with no Merel attached to them and a puddle of blood underneath it. I threw my hand over my mouth as I saw a severed hand lying on the ground .

"No! No!" Daryl screamed before turning around and raising his crossbow at T-Dog and Dad raised his gun at Daryl.

"Wow! Wow! Everyone calm down!" I said holding my arms up in defense.

"I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it." Dad threatened. Daryl lowered his crossbow and I saw him blink his eyes hard to keep the tears out of his eyes.

"Any-one got a do-rag or something?" Daryl asked and T-Dog reached into his pocket and pulled out a rag. Daryl walked over and wrapped up the hand.

"Why didn't he just saw off the cuffs?" I asked in a whisper to Glenn.

"I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." He answered.

"But it was sharp enough to cut through his hand?" I asked sarcastically, but I stopped talking as soon as I saw Daryl walking over to us. He reached for Glenn and turned him around, shoving the hand into the backpack.

"Maybe there's a blood trail we can follow." I suggested. Daryl nodded and started following the trail.

"Why do I have to hold the hand?" Glenn pouted.

"Because you're the chosen one." I joked. I saw Daryl, T-Dog and Dad start heading back down the stairs and started following them.

"Hey, should we grab anything from downstairs? I know this is a rescue mission, but do we need anything for camp?" I called to the men walking in front of me.

"This ain't the time for shoppin', woman!" Daryl called back. I rolled my eyes and continued following them out of the building into the hotel next door. Inside were two dead walkers on the ground, "Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches, one handed. Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." Daryl said setting his crossbow down to reload it.

"I second that." I muttered and Daryl looked over at me, but surprisingly not with an angry expression, he just looked.

"Any man can pass out from blood lose, no matter how tough he is." Dad reminded him.

"Merel!" Daryl yelled and he and Dad walked towards the kitchen and I smelled gas coming from inside the room We walked in and I saw that the blood trail ended at the stove that was still lit with a belt lying next to it. Merel had cauterized the wound himself.

"What's that burned stuff?" Glenn asked.

"You don't wanna know." I said and Glenn looked like he might throw up.

"Told you he was tough, nobody can kill Merel but Merel." Daryl said.

"Don't take that on faith. He still lost a lost of blood." Dad said. I started walking around and saw that one of the windows was broken by the fire escape. Clearly the men were too busy arguing to be able to actually

"Um, guys? I think Merel left." I said and I was immediately rushed by four people trying to look at the window. Daryl and Dad started arguing so I grabbed Glenn and dragged him over to the kitchen door we had entered through.

"What?" He asked urgently.

"Nothing. I just didn't wanna hear them fight any more." I shrugged and Glenn laughed.

"What's so funny o'er there?" Daryl snapped.

"Nothing. We shouldn't be laughing in such a serious situation." I apologized before Glenn could and Daryl nodded, accepting my answer before turning back to Dad.

"You couldn't kill him, ain't so worried 'bout some dumb dead bastard."

"How about a thousand dumb dead bastards? Different story?" Dad asked.

Dad and Daryl started yelling and shoving each other's chest.

"Shh!" Glenn and I hushed, worrying about all the walkers with in earshot. Dad started trying to talk calmly to Daryl and I grabbed Glenn and dragged him to the stairs.

"C'mon. Let's grab some supplies." I said and we quietly walked down the staircase. I knew my dad would be pissed if he found out that I had left his sight, but since he was busy arguing I decided that someone needed to do something. Glenn started stuffing clothes into his bag while I shot down two walkers in the corner. I was wiping my arrows on my jeans when I felt someone grab my arm.

"Georgia May. What did I say 'bout leaving my sight?" My dad said scowling at me. I opened my mouth to answer, but Dad held his hand up to stop me, "We'll discuss this when we get back." He said walking towards the door. I groaned internally and closed my eyes as my dad embarrassed me in front of the one friend I had and the guy I liked.

"Ya shot those two?" I heard Daryl ask and I opened my eyes to see him nodding towards the walkers.

"Um...yeah. I did." I confirmed.

Daryl grunted, "Glad we dragged ya along. No one saw those two or the broken window."

"Thanks." I muttered blushing. I turned to leave and saw a jewelry display with a pair of earring shaped like horse shoes and grabbed them, stuffing them in my pocket before turning back to the conversation about the bag of guns. My best friend Jenna and I had always loved horses and Jenna's family owned a ranch where we used to ride. I missed her like crazy, I missed a lot of things about the old world, but riding with her and her brother had to be one of the things that hurt the most to lose.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much." I heard Daryl say and I started paying attention to the conversation again. From the way everyone was glaring at Glenn who had his arms crossed defiantly, I would guess he suggested going to grab the guns alone.

"It's a good idea, okay. If you just hear me out. If we go out there is a group, we're slow, draw attention. If I'm alone I can move fast. Look," Glenn said kneeling down and the rest of us following, he started moving objects around to make a little battle plan of the city, "That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now. That's the bag of guns, here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met. That's where Daryl or JoJo and I will go."

"Why me?" Daryl asked.

"Your and JoJo's arrows are quieter than guns. While one of them waits in the alley, I run up the street and grab the guns." Glenn explained.

"I think Daryl should go with you. This job is too important for someone who doesn't have enough experience fighting walkers or shooting moving targets." I said and Dad nodded and smiled. I looked over and saw that Daryl looked a little upset, but I figured it was because his brother was wondering around the city, handless.

"You have the three of us somewhere else?" Dad asked.

"You, T-Dog, and JoJo, you'll be in this alley two blocks away. I may not be able to come back the same way, walkers might cut me off. If that happens I won't go to Daryl, I'll go to you three. Which ever direction I go I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards we'll all met back here." Glenn directed.

"Hey kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl asked.

"Deliver pizzas. Why?" Glenn asked and I giggled causing everyone to turn and look at me.

..........

We split off into our groups and quickly and quietly walked to our positions.

"JoJo, I'm proud of what you said back there. That was the responsible, mature decision. That shows me your ready for this. However, not following direction is not something you can do in a life or death situation. If you want to come on runs you need to learn to follow not only my, but whoever is in charge, directions. Understood?" Dad asked and I nodded solemnly. The three of us stood in the alley looking out at the tank to see if Glenn was coming towards us.

"So, you hid in a tank and Glenn saved your life?" I asked. My dad smiled and opened his mouth to answer when a cry cut through the silent street of the city.

"Ayudame!" It cried. We took off running to where Daryl was waiting and saw a few dead walker, the bag of guns, and my dad's sheriff hat. Daryl was closing the gate to the alley and when we turned around we saw that he had a teenage boy in a headlock.

"Wow! What's goin' on?" I asked. Dad pulled Daryl off of the kid who tried to run until T-Dog grabbed him.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up into your throat. They took Glenn, that little bastard! I'm gonna stomp your ass!" Daryl yelled and I raised my bow and pointed an arrow at the kid's chest.

"Guys! We're cut off!" T-Dog yelled. I didn't need to look at the gate to know there were walkers pressing up against it.

"Get to the base!" Dad yelled and I lower my bow, but grabbed my knife before following T-Dog and our new prisoner.


	4. Turf War

We were back at our base, a.k.a the kitchen of the hotel, with our newest member sitting in a chair being questioned by Dad who was in full cop mode.

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went." Dad said.

"I ain't tellin' you nothing." The kid said licking the cut on his lip. He was wearing a wife beater and sagging jeans, he had a few gang tattoos on him and his hair was cut short. We had a few people at my school like him, but they were always expelled or had dropped out within two months.

"Jesus man, what the Hell happened back there?" T-Dog asked Daryl.

"I told you! This little turd and his douchebag friends came outta nowhere and jumped me!" Daryl yelled.

"Man, you're the one who jumped me, Puto. Scremin about his brother like it's my fault." The kid sassed.

"They took Glenn, Coulda took Merel too." Daryl defended.

"Merel? What kinda hick name is that?" The kids laughed and Daryl raised his fist and his leg to kick the kick but my dad jumped up and grabbed him

"Okay, let's all just calm down and talk this out." I suggested. I saw Daryl's shoulders shake as he released a breath then he calmly walked over to Glenn's bag that had been dropped in the struggle and pulled out Merel's hand, carefully unwrapping it.

"Ya wanna see what happened to the last guy pissed me off?" He asked tossing the hand into the kids lap who screamed and jumped up, running into the corner. Daryl tackled him to the floor, "Imma start with the feet this time!"

"Daryl stop it! We need him!" I said and he hesitated for a moment before letting the kid go.

"The men who took off with our friend, all we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out." Dad said and the kid nodded.

He led us to a run down brick building and we stood outside the gate planning our entrance.

"You sure you're up for this?" Dad asked T-Dog.

He nodded and I looked down at the kid, building up the strength to say what I was about to say, "Hey, you mess this up and I'm gonna shot an arrow in your crotch, just so you know." I said tossing my hair over my shoulder and walking away. I walked towards the hole that was made in the fence. I pushed the kid in front of us and stood with my bow lowered, but ready and the doors slide open.

"You okay little man?" A middle aged man asked walking out of the garage structure.

"They're gonna cut off my feet, Carnal." The kid said in a worried voice.

"Cops do that?" The man asked in genuine confusion looking at my dad.

"Not him. This redneck, Puto, here. He cut off some dudes hand, man! He showed it to me! His girlfriend is gonna put an arrow through me!" The kid sounded terrified as he told his friend everything we had threatened to do to him. Then I realized that he had just called me Daryl's girlfriend and I felt myself perk up. I risked a quick glance over at him, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Shut up!" Daryl and I snapped at him.

"Hey, that's that Vato right there, Homes. He shot me in the ass with an arrow man. What's up Homes?" A short bald man asked coming out of the building holding a gun. I raised my bow, but didn't pull back the string yet.

"Chill, Ese, chill." The leader said putting his hand on the arm that was holding up the gun. "This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick man" The man said.

"We were hoping more for a calm discussion." Dad said.

"That Hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Filipe gets an arrow in his ass and you want a calm discussion?" The man asked. I suddenly felt guilty over what we had done, but then I remember that these bastards had Glenn and my remorse disappeared. I took mental notes of all of the names the leader was giving us so we could us them in this 'calm discussion' as a sign of friendship, at least that's what I had learned in interrogation techniques at the station.

"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made, on both sides." I said calmly, not lowering my weapon, but also making no move to fire.

"Who's that dude to you anyways? You don't look related." The leader said nodding towards Daryl.

"He's one of our group. I'm sure you have a few like him." Dad explained.

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl growled.

"Sorry, we're fresh out of white boys. But I got an Asian. You interested?" The man said and I pulled back on my bow lining up my shot.

"I have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade." My dad negotiated.

"Don't sound like it to me." The leader said.

"G. Come on man." The kid, Miguel, said.

"My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns?" G asked.

"Guns?" Dad asked.

"The bag of guns Miguel saw in the street. The bag Felipe and Jorge were going to get. That bag of guns." G said.

"You're mistaken about it being yours. It's my bag of guns." Dad said.

"The bag was in the street. Anyone could come around and say it was theirs. I'm suppose to take your word? What's to stop your people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what's mine?" G asked and more men with guns showed up at the door way.

"You could do that, or not." Dad said nodding to where T-Dog was positioned on the roof with a riffle.

"Oye!" G yelled and two men showed up on the roof holding Glenn with a bag over his head which they pulled off and they pulled off the hood and I saw duct tape over his mouth. I nearly dropped my bow in shock as I saw my new friend standing on the edge of a building, but I knew how important it was to keep up a tough front.

"I see two options, you come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded, we'll see which side spills more blood." G said.

..........

Back at our base Dad dumped the bag of guns onto one of the tables started going through them. I was sitting curled up in one of the chairs messing with my Dad's sheriff hat, when I was younger and he first got the job he used to let me wear it, but as I got older I had stopped. Maybe we should give it to Carl now. I fanned myself with the hat briefly and hiked my ponytail up higher, off of my neck.

"Guns are worth more than gold. And gold won't protect yer family or put food on the table. Ya willin ta give that up for that kid?" Daryl asked.

"Glenn." I said, not sure if anyone could hear my muffled voice.

"Wha?" He asked.

"His name is Glenn and he's not just some kid, he's my friend and he's one of us." I said looking up at him.

"If I knew we could get Glenn back, I might agree. But you think that Vato crew is just gonna hand him over?" T-Dog said.

"You callin G a liar?" Miguel asked from the corner.

"Are you part a this? Ya wanna hold on to yer teeth." Daryl said smacking the kid upside the side causing me to crack a weak smile.

"Question is, do you trust that man's word?" T-Dog said.

"No question is, what're you willin to bet on it? Could be more than those guns, could be your life." Daryl snapped.

"No. The question is, why were we all willing to risk our lives of Merel, a guy three of us don't like no offence Daryl, but y'all aren't willing to risk your lives for Glenn who got us the guns?" I yelled. Everyone turned and looked at me and I suddenly felt embarrassed and looked at the ground.

"What life I have I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He coulda walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I." Dad said.

"So yer gonna hand the guns over?" Daryl asked.

"I didn't say that. There's nothing keeping you two hear you should head out, go back to camp. JoJo, go with them." Dad corrected.

"Right, and tell Lori what?" I asked.

"I'm with you." T-Dog said. I turned to look at Daryl who walked forward and started sorting guns on the table causing the rest of us to jump in.

"Come on! This is nuts!" Miguel said standing up and Daryl shoved him back down. "Just do like G says." He begged.

Dad, Daryl, and T-Dog all took shotguns, but I knew they weren't the right size and weight for me, and while a handgun would be powerful enough it wouldn't have the same effect as showing up with a big gun. I saw a .22 lever action rifle at the bottom of the pile and grabbed that. The bullet were small and probably won't kill you, but could wound you and it didn't have too much kick so I should be able to fire it with no problem.

I reached forward and grabbed a handgun as well, but Dad put his hand on my wrist, "What are you doing?"

"Shane said I could carry a gun around as soon as we had enough." I explained.

"Well, Shane's not your father. Is a knife on you belt and a bow not enough fire power for you?" He asked jokingly and I rolled my eyes.

We started walking over to the other groups camp this time with Miguel gagged, handcuffed, and with Daryl's gun pressed against his back. I was walking a few steps behind them with T-Dog and Dad, with the bag of guns across his back, bringing up the rear.

"Peaches." Dad called and I fell back in line with him, "I'm not sure I want you going in there."

"What?" I asked.

"These people are more dangerous than any walkers we've faced. I don't want you in the line of fire." Dad said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"But, we have a plan. It'll work and I'll be fine. I'll stay in the back of the group and if things start getting bad, I'll back out, I promise. Plus, you're a great negotiator, if things get bad you can get them to let me out. Please Daddy, you need all the men you have." I begged. I wanted so desperately to save Glenn and get back to camp. Dad looked me in the eye and nodded.

"You stand in back and follow my orders." He reminded me.

Soon enough we were standing at the entrance to the other camp. They other group opened the doors and let us walk into the garage that was full of angry looking men and G and Filipe walking towards us. True to my word I hung toward the back of the group, behind Daryl, close enough that I could help, far enough away that I could run.

"I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag." G said nodding towards my dad.

"That's because they're not all yours. I thought I mentioned that." Dad said calmly, in his normal sheriff-negotiation mode.

"Let's just shoot these fools right now, Ese. Alright? Unload on their asses, Ese?" A man to the side of G advised.

"I don't think you fully understand the gravity of the situation." G glared at Dad.

"No, I'm pretty clear." Dad said and he nodded to me. I pulled out the handcuff key and unlocked Miguel's cuffs before Daryl shoved him forward towards his own group, "You have your man. I want mine."

"I'm gonna chop up your boy. I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw. I picked them up t Satan's yard sale! I told you how it was gonna be. Are you woefully deaf?" G yelled. I bawled my fist and took a step towards G as I heard him threaten Glenn. Dad raised his hand to tell me to wait then stepped closer to G.

"No, my hearing is fine. You said come locked and loaded." Dad said and we all cocked our weapons, causing all of G's men to cock their weapons as well and we stood there in a Mexican standoff as Dad and G continued talking, "Well here we are."

"Filipe! Filipe!" A woman's voice called out. I turned my gun towards the voice and saw an old woman walking out of the crowd of men.

"Abuela, go back with the others, now!" Filipe yelled.

"Get that old lady out of the line of fire!" Daryl warned.

"Abuela, listen to your Mijo, okay? This is not the place for you right now" G asked.

"Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing. He needs his asthma stuff" The woman, Abuela, said pointing to her chest. "Carlito couldn't find it. He needs his medicine."

G looked at us then back and the woman a few times, "Filipe, got take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you!" He ordered.

Filipe started speaking quickly to his grandmother in Spanish trying to shove her towards the door. It's times like this I wish I had taken Spanish in high school instead of French.

"Who are those men?" She asked walking towards our group. Filipe started trying to call her back, but she ignored him.

"Don't you take him." She ordered. We all looked at each other trying to figure out what she meant.

"Ma'am?" I asked poking my head out from around Daryl's broad shoulders and my Dad glared at me. The woman looked at me before turning back to my dad.

"Filipe's a good boy. He have his troubles, but he pull himself together. We need him here." She begged. Suddenly I realized that she thought Dad was here to arrest Filipe and I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing.

"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your grandson." Dad assured her.

"Then what do you want him for?" She asked.

"He's...helping us find a missing person. A fella named Glenn."Dad lied.

"The Asian boy?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am! That's him." I said and she smiled at me.

"Oh! He's with Mr. Gilbert. Come. Come, I show you." She said waving us forward before looking back at G, "He needs his medicine."

G shook his head, "Let 'em pass." He said and everyone lowered their guns and stepped aside so we could walk through.

Abuela grabbed mine and Dad's hands and dragged us out of the garage, through a garden, and into the main building which had been converted into a temporary hospital with some gurneys, medicine, and equipment. I looked in one of the rooms and saw a young woman feeding an old man some soup and realised that this wasn't a hospital, it was a nursing home.

"Abuela, por favor. Let me take it to me." Filipe said grabbing some medicine from a file cabinet in the hallway. Dad took his hat off as we walked through the hallways and looked around, I could tell he was coming to the same realization I was. I reached up wipe my brow, it was incredibly hot in here, but no one seemed bothered by it. Abuela led us to the main room where a bunch of older people were sitting talking, eating,taking medicine and then I saw Glenn sitting next to a man in a wheelchair looking completely unharmed. Filipe was giving the man his asthma inhaler and I walked up to Glenn and gave him a quick side hug before letting go and staying by his side.

"What the Hell is this?" Dad asked.

"An asthma attack. Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden." Glenn said looking worried.

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs." T-Dog snapped. Glenn turned around and I followed his gaze to where two chihuahuas were sitting.

"I let my daughter walk into what I thought was a death trap for you." Dad glared. Then he looked over at G, "Could I have a word with you? You're the dumbest son of a bitch I've ever met." I heard Dad say as they walked away. I fanned myself before pulling my hair up into a quick sloppy bun to get it off my neck and face, giving my neck a quick rub while doing so. I felt eyes on me and looked over to see Daryl staring at my neck and hair. He looked away when he noticed me and I blushed and looked down.

"JoJo." Dad called and I saw that G was leading us into another room. The room appeared to be some kind of break room with a couch and table and chairs in it which we all sat down on.

"The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind. Plunderers, the kind that take things by force." G said.

"Says the guy who tried to throw Glenn off a roof I muttered and Glenn snicker. I looked over at him in disbelief that he thought this was funny.

"That's not the kind of people we are." Dad promised.

"How was I to know? My people got attacked and you showed up with Miguel as hostage.

"Guess the world's changed." T-Dog lamented.

"No. It's the same as ever. The weak get taken. So we do what we can, the vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city, but most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something. So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance, the vatos they go out and scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter day and night and we wait. The people here, they look to me now and I don't even know why." G confessed.

"Because they can." Dad said before flipping his gun around and handing it to G. My eyes widened in shock, I know we just had a deep heart-to-heart, but he had kidnapped Glenn, held us at gunpoint, and threatened us. Dad dug through the gun bag and gave them about five of the larger guns.

..........

We were walking back to the truck in silence, we had been walking for about half an hour and had finally reached the train tracks.

"Admit it. You only came back to Atlanta for the hat." Glenn said breaking the silence.

"Don't tell anybody." Dad joked.

"It is a good look, Daddy." I said.

"You've given away half our guns and ammo. For what? A bunch a old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?" Daryl asked holding his crossbow in his hand, but holding it over his shoulder, making his amazing arm muscles ripple and my head get fuzzy.

"How long do any of us have?" Dad posed. We rounded an abandoned bus and froze in place, our truck was gone.

"Oh my God." Glenn whispered.

"Where the Hell is our van?" I asked even though I knew no one had an answer.

"We left it right there. Who would take it?" T-Dog asked.

"Merel." Daryl and Dad said at the same time and I groaned. Now we were stranded away from camp, in the open, in the heat, with almost no supplies since this was suppose to be a quick run.

"He's gonna be takin' some vengeance back to camp." Daryl warned.

"Looks like we're walking from here." Dad said and he started forward on the tracks. It took us two hours and we were running towards the end so we wouldn't lose the light, but we finally made it back to the camp. My legs, sides, and lungs were burning and my back muscles straining from the weight of my bow. I couldn't wait to eat and go to sleep. Suddenly I heard gunshots and people screaming and I ran into the camp. There were walkers everywhere and I could see Amy lying on the ground near the RV.

"Lori! Carl!" I screamed. An arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into something solid just as a walker would have grabbed me. It dropped to the ground with an arrow in it's skull and I looked up to see that I was in Daryl's arms. If the the situation weren't so dire I might have swooned. I saw Lori and Carl with Shane and grabbed my knife from it's holder, running towards them, and taking a few walkers down along the way. Carl ran up and grabbed me and I dragged him away from where the main fight was happening. Lori came up behind us with Carol and Sophia and we quickly walked away from the main fight. I wanted to jump in and help everyone, but I needed to get my family to safety first. I pushed everyone towards the RV, but when I turned around I saw that most of the walkers had been taken care of already

"Baby! Carl! Peaches!" I heard Dad yell out. I ran towards him with Carl beside me and hugged him.He held us tight in his arms and I hear Carl sniffling. We let go and I quickly wiped my eyes as Lori wrapped her arms around Dad, but I saw her looking at Shane over his shoulder. I hated to think that something was going on between my step mom and my dad's best friend behind his back, but the lingering touches and stares were slowly confirming my thoughts. I looked around and saw the bodies of walkers and our group around us, in front of the RV Andrea was crying over her sister's body. Tears started slipping down my face as I saw so many people I had grown to care about on the ground.

"Amy! Amy!" Andrea started wailing and everyone turned to look over at the gruesome scene. Lori dropped to her knees, and I saw Carol tucking Sophia's face into her trying to shield her daughter. I started sobbing and decided now was the time to leave, Andrea didn't need us gawking at her right now.

"C'mon Carl. let's go to our tent." I said leading him away from the massacre. I turned his head into my side as we walked over and only let him go when I knelt down to unzip the tent. Carl walked in and I felt a hand on my shoulder, I grabbed my reached for my bow as I turned around.

"Ya alright girl?" Daryl asked as I turned completely to face him.

"Yea. thanks for savin' me back there." I wiping the tears from my cheeks and he looked down and grunted.

"Was nothing. Just didn't want Rick yellin' at me for not makin sure yer safe." He mumbled and I knew he was lying, but that was okay.

"Okay. I'm gonna calm Carl down. Thanks again. Goodnight, Daryl." I said awkwardly turning to my tent.

"Night JoJo." he whispered behind me and I blushed and felt a small smile pull at my lips.

"Why are you smiling? How can you be happy about what just happened?" Carl cried as I zipped the tent closed.

"Because, you, me, Dad, Lori, and Shane are okay. Everyone made it back safely from Atlanta. We have more guns, and most importantly we have Dad's sheriff hat." I said trying to sound cheerful as I sniffled and held back my own tears. The zipper of our tent lowered and I had my bow loaded by the time Dad poked his head in. He didn't say anything, just walked in with Lori behind him and wrapped all of us in his arms where we stayed for the rest of the night.  


	5. Aftermath

I woke up slowly as I heard someone moving around the tent. I cracked my eyes open and saw my dad disappeared through the tent flap. I stood up and grabbed my bow slinging it over my shoulder and my knife which I tucked into my holder then I went outside and slipped my shoes off. I was sure he knew that I was following him, but he didn't turn to look at me. We walked up to the RV where I saw Andrea kneeling on the ground holding Amy's boy. It hurt to know that we were going to have to take care of the walker-Amy problem, but there was no choice. I walked over to Andrea and knelt next to her, but she didn't acknowledge me, just continued staring at Amy's lifeless body and I didn't blame her. She had just watched her baby sister get brutally murdered, I couldn't imagine what I would be like if Carl died never mind if I had to watch it.

"Andrea. I'm so sorry. She's gone. You gotta let us take her." I whispered, I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked around to see Lori standing behind me. "We all cared about her. And I promise we'll be as gentle as we can." I continued, but Andrea still didn't look away from Amy. Lori rubbed my shoulders before pulling my arms for me to stand up and she guided me away. I saw T-Dog and Glenn carrying walkers bodies to a fire in the middle of the camp after Daryl drove a pickax through their skulls.

"Y'all need any help?" I asked, praying they would say no; I hadn't eaten since we got to Atlanta yesterday and had barely slept last night. They shook their heads and I went to sit down with some of our group. Shane, Lori, Carol, Dale, and I were sitting by our normal fire pit across from the RV. Dad walked up and tossed me an energy bar which I began to quickly shovel down.

"Georgia, mind your manners." Lori chasted.

"Relax, girl hasn't eaten in half a day and went on her first run yesterday, then came home and killed more walkers. Far as I'm concerned she can do whatever she wants today." Shane said and Lori glared at him. I still wasn't sure what was going on with them, but I betting it wasn't good. The minute Dad came back Lori started acting cold to Shane and Shane started acting angry.

"She still won't move?" Dad asked nodded towards Andrea.

"Won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?" Lori asked.

"Can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it, same as the others." Shane stated the obvious.

Dad nodded, "I'll tell her how it is." He said in a determined voice before walking over to Andrea. I shot out of my seat as I saw Andrea pull a gun on my dad as he went to talk to her and he backed away slowly. Daryl walked over and stood next to me as Dad was walking back and he quickly pieced together what was going on.

"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." Daryl said.

"What do you suggest?" Dad asked and Daryl took a step towards him.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." Daryl said.

"Really?" I asked a little surprised. I was a good archer, but a moving target that small from this distance seems difficult. I noticed Daryl stood up at bit straighter and looked a little too cocky at my question. I had wanted to learn how to hunt and I figured that now that it would be our main source of food and we had an expert huntsmen with us now would be the perfect time.

"No. For God's sake, let her be." Lori said looking at Andrea.

Everyone sat back down, but I saw tired of staring at Amy and Andrea so I followed Daryl as he walked away.

"Thing you could teach me that some time?" I asked.

"Teach you what?" He snapped, but I pressed on anyways.

"How to shot a turkey between the eyes. But we can start small. How 'bout how to hunt and track." I begged.

"Hell no girl! We got walkers comin' outta those woods and you wanna go in there and mess 'round!?" Daryl barked and I took a step back.

"I didn't mean today. I just meant some time. I figure, the more people who know how to, the best for the group right?" I asked timidly. Daryl sighed and looked at the ground.

"Fine. But not till this mess from last night is takin' care of." He said.

"Thank you!" I said, I practically wanted to jump up and down, but i settled for walking forward and wrapping my arms around him. He didn't exactly accept the hug, but he didn't shove me away. I let go of him, blushing, and gave him a small wave as I went over to my tent.

I sat down and started taking my shoes off when I heard people yelling at each other and I groaned, I wanted so badly to sleep but my curiosity overtook that and I slipped my shoes back on.

"Jim's been bit!" I heard Jackie yelling and I notched an arrow in my bow and ran over.

"I'm okay! I'm okay!" Jim said.

"Show it to us!" Daryl demanded.

"Daryl knock it off." I said, but everyone was yelling for him to show them which drowned out my voice. I looked around for my dad, but didn't see him.

Jim turned towards me and grabbed a shovel lying on the ground and started waving it threatening so I raised my bow.

"Easy Jim." Shane warned, but Jim lunged towards him.

"Some one grab him!" I yelled.

T-Dog wrapped his arms around Jim and Daryl pulled his shirt up revealing a bit on his chest and Jim kept muttering that he was okay. We all stood there staring at him as he continued to chant that he was fine. Jim went and sat down in the shade of the RV and everyone looked at each other before walking to a safe distance where Jim couldn't hear us before discussing our problem.

"I say we put a pickax in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl advised and I rolled my eyes. These were people, these were our friends, we weren't just going to take Andrea's sister or a man who hadn't died or turned yet.

"Is that what you'd want if it was you?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." Daryl grumbled.

"I hate to say it...I never thought I would...but maybe Daryl's right." Dale said.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or a rabid dog." Dad said in disgust.

"I'm not tryin to say..." Dale started.

"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Dad asked philosophically.

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl said.

"What if we can get him help. I heard the C.D.C was working on a cure." Dad said.

"I heard that too. But Dad, that was months ago. How do we know it's still standing?" I asked.

"I heard that. I heard a lot of things before the world went to Hell. The C.D.C still up and running, man, that's a stretch right there." Shane said.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C at all cost, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot, shelter, protection." Dad said.

"Okay, Rick, you want those thing, I do too. Now, if they exist they're at the army base." Shane said.

"Fort Benning? That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori said.

"That's right, but it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me, if that place is operational, it'll be armed We'd be safe there." Shane argued.

"The C.D.C is our best chance and Jim's only choice." Dad said.

"Look, C.D.C, Fort Benning, it doesn't matter. We can't stay here with, especially not after what happened last night. There are too many walkers." I said.

"You go lookin' for Aspirin. Do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem." Daryl yelled running up to Jim with the pickax before Dad pulled a gun on him.

"Hey, hey, hey! We don't kill the living." Dad warned. Daryl lowered his ax and looked at Dad.

"That's funny comin' from a man who just put a gun to ma head." Daryl snarked. The group broke off to finish the tasks they had started earlier and I started to walk away when I got lightheaded and my knees gave out under me.

"Wow!" I heard someone say, but my vision was a little blurry and I suddenly felt incredibly hot. I felt someone pick me up and carry me away then set me down in a chair and pour water on my head making me gasp and my vision clear.

"Damn it girl! Ya trying to get yourself killed!" I heard Daryl say, I looked up and saw he was the one who saved me. He held out a cup of water to me and I downed it.

"Ya got heat exhaustion, yer dehydrated, yer tired, and ya haven't eaten. It's 100 damn degrees today! Yer gonna get yourself killed if ya don't take care a yerself! I won't always be there to save ya!" Daryl yelled as he opened the umbrella that was on the side of the RV to provide me some shade.

"Thank you, Daryl." I said in a raspy voice.

"Ya sit here and don't move till ya finish yer water and slept." He ordered before picking up the pickax and driving it into a few walkers heads while I relaxed in the shade.

"I'm sorry. Thanks again." I whispered and Daryl looked up at me before grunting and continuing his work. I watched his amazing arms swing the pick and the sweat run down his forehead as I sipped my water. Carol walked over just as I finished my drink and started throwing my hair into a French Braid to keep to off my face and neck.

"I'll do it." She said grabbing the axe from Daryl. I was confused until I looked down at the walker and saw that it was Carol's abusive husband Ed, or what was left of him; she swung the ax and then kept swing, hitting him again and again while sobbing then as soon as it had started she dropped the weapon and walked away. I started dosing off in the chair when a gunshot sounds so I jumped up and rounded the RV and saw Amy's brains splattered on the ground. I pressed my hand to my mouth to suppress my sobs and ran over to my dad who wrapped me in his arms.

Daryl walked over to us and said, "Don't forget to rest an eat."

"What?" Dad asked.

"Ya might wanna take care of yer daughter. Girl almost passed out from exhaustion earlier." He grumbled before walking away.

"That true, Peaches?" Dad asked and I nodded.

"I didn't really eat yesterday or today, or drink a lot of water, or sleep last night." I said.

"Go lay down. You're not doing anything else for the rest of the day." Dad said and I stumbled to my tent and passed out the minute my head hit the pillow.

..........

Lori woke me up a few hours later and gave me water and another energy bar before telling me we were heading to the other side of the quarry to have a funeral for the members of our camp who had died. I felt much better as I walked with Lori and Carl with everyone else except Dad, Shane, and Daryl who were already up there.

As we approached we heard the boys arguing, "The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" I head Daryl asked.

"He's Korean." I yelled and she turned to look at me before turning back to the argument. Glenn walked up next to me and gave me a thumbs up.

"These people need to know who the Hell is in charge. What the rules are." Daryl continued.

"There are no rules." Dad said.

"Well that' a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori insisted before grabbing Carl and holding him to her. We stood and watched as each person who lost someone buried their family member and it was particularly heartbreaking to watch Andrea bury her sister. I wiped my tears and wrapped my arms around myself, looking over at Dad who had his arms around Lori and Carl to give Andrea a moment with her sister.

Once everyone was buried and words were spoken we went back to our camp, "Burying other people is bad enough, but the thought of burying one of us..." Lori started but Dad shushed her.

"Are we safe now Dad? Now that we're together?" Carl asked. Dad knelt down and pulled me down with him.

"I won't ever leave you again. I promise you that. Not for anything. Now give me a chance to discuss somethings with your mom okay?" Dad said and Carl nodded.

"Georgia, why don't you and Carl grab Sophia and see if she wants to play?" Lori suggested.

"C'mon kiddo. Let's go find Sophia." I said standing up and putting my hand on Carl's shoulder as we walked, occasionally glancing back at Lori and Dad.

We found Sophia in the RV with Carol taking care of Jim, "Hey Sophia. Hey Carol. Carl and I were wondering if Sophia might wanna play a game of cards with us? If that's okay with you." I said. Sophia jumped up and ran over to Carl and Carol mouthed thanks at me as I took the kids outside. Some of the other kids came over and started offered for Carl and Sophia to play tag with them and they took off leaving me standing next to the RV. I decided to go practice with my bow is the wood and as I walked towards the tree line I saw Lori and Shane arguing and rolled my eyes.

I walked quietly through the wood with my bow at the ready. I wasn't sure what I was shooting at, I had never hunted before and I wanted to try, but I also didn't want to scare any food in the area away. I heard a bush rustling behind me and figured it was someone coming to look for me.

"I'll be back in a minute." I told them turning around to find a walker reaching for me. I screamed as it lunged at me and reached for my knife, I was much to close to use my bow, and drove the knife down to the hilt in it's brain and the walker dropped taking me down with it. My body was shaking and I felt tears well in my eyes. I had killed walkers before, but I had never had one this close to me before, I had never feared for my life like that before. I started crying harder, sitting on the forest floor.

"JoJo?" I heard my dad ask, I turned around and saw my dad and Shane standing behind me with guns doing their sweep of the area.

"I...I was just...I wanted...he came out of nowhere." I stuttered as Dad came over and picked me up, wrapping my shoulders.

"You did good, honey. You got him. You're okay. Come on." He said leading me back to the camp.

"I don't want to go back." I said, I didn't want anyone fussing over me. Dad looked at Shane who shrugged and they started forward continuing their sweep with me trailing behind them, Dad rubbing my arm and trying to calm me down. We walked for a while before we heard a branch snap and we split up to look for the source of the noise and I saw a rabbit sprint out of a bush. I turned back around and saw Shane aiming his gun, I followed the gaze and saw that it landed on my dad's back and a moment too long before he lowered it. I stood frozen in shock, I had known Shane my whole life, longer than I had known Lori, and here he was aiming his gun at his best friend's back. I wondered what could have brought him the edge, then remember his and Lori's touches and talks and knew my suspicions were starting to be confirmed, Lori and Shane had been seeing each other either before or during the out break, maybe both, and Shane was in love with Lori. Shane looked over at me and caught my eye before I stood, I froze in place until he looked away from me.

We walked back to the camp in silence, which I was thankful for since I had a lot to think over, what I had just seen, wondering if I should confront Lori, wondering if I should tell Dad what I had just seen. I was somewhat aware of the conversation going on around me, but it was mostly white noise.

..........

I decided to keep it to myself until I knew for sure, maybe I was being paranoid and my step mom wasn't sleeping with my uncle figure and Shane wasn't trying to put a bullet in my dad.

In the conversation I hadn't been paying attention to, the group had decided to try the C.D.C. Morales and his family had decided not to come with us, which meant we had to rearrange the seating arrangement for the car. I saw Daryl chewing on his thumb nail leaning on his back and wondered who was going to be riding on the back of his bike or if we who be riding by himself. Carl was leaning on the car next to me I heard him sniffling, he had been friends with Morale's son and daughter, but he still had us and Sophia, I had faith he would be okay.

"Are we all going to able to fit in the car?" Carol asked, we could only fit about five people, maybe six. Dale, Jim, and Jackie were in the RV and Dad, Lori, Carl, Carol, Sophia, and Glenn were in the car. Shane was in his jeep with Andrea riding next to him and T-Dog was driving Daryl's truck that normally had the motorcycle in the back of it.

"We can squeeze us all in." Dad said confidently, "I don't want JoJo in the RV with Jim being so sick." I heard Dad mutter and I looked over at Daryl's bike. I walked over to him as he straddled it and tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, it's a bit of a tight squeeze in the car, would you let someone ride on your bike?" I asked, secretly hoping he would say yes and that he would ask me to ride with him.

"Can't ya sit in yer boyfriend's lap?" He snapped at me.

"Wait...my what?" I asked.

"You and Glenn, y'all aren't together?" He asked.

"No! Don't get me wrong, I love Glenn, but like a brother. He's my best friend." I explained.

"Grab a jacket, I don't have any helmets. Get back quick." He said pulling his crossbow which had been strapped to his shoulders off and tucking it into a pouch on the side that looked like it was made for that specific purpose in mind.

I ran to the car and grabbed my archery club hoodie out of my backpack, "Daddy, can I ride on Daryl's bike?" I asked sweetly.

"What?" He asked in shock.

"There's no room in the car." I pouted.

"Does he have helmets?" He wondered.

"Yep." I lied and Dad smiled and nodded. I ran back over to the bike and threw my leg over it like I was mounting a horse.

"Is it okay if I hold your waist?" I asked, not sure what the proper protocol was for riding on the back of your crush's motorcycle. He grabbed my hands a roughly wrapped them around my waist making me blush before he revved the bike and we took off. I like riding on the bike, it was soothing the gentle vibration of it rocking through my body, the wind kept blowing my hair and I was thankful I pulled it half up earlier. The wind made my cheeks and nose cold, but the heat coming off of Daryl's body warmed me back off. I wondered how he wasn't freezing in his sleeveless shirt.

After over an hour the RV, which was leading the procession pulled off the road, similar to how we found it that first night. The hose on it that they had been trying to fix for weeks had broken again and we were waiting around trying to come up with a solution when Jackie came out of the RV.

"Y'all Jim, it's bad. I don't think he can take it anymore." She informed us before running back into the RV.

"Hey Rick. Want hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead and see what I can bring back." Shane said.

"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up." T-Dog. They took off and Dad went into the RV to talk to Jim.

Dad came out of the RV and removed his hat, "Jim has asked that we leave him here. He doesn't want to continue. It's what he says he wants."

"And he's lucid?" Carol asked.

"He seems to be. I would say he is." Dad said.

"Back at the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." Dale explained.

"So, what? We just leave him here and take off? Don't you think that seems cruel. I don't think I could live with that" I said.

"I don't think I could either." Dad agreed.

"It's not your call, either one of you." Lori said. I walked away as Dad and Dale went back into the RV to get Jim, not being able to bring myself to watch.

..........

The sun was going down as we approached the C.D.C and I had learned another thing that I like about motorcycles, it was quite. You and the driver can't really talk with the wind in your ears and you can just think, I thought about everything that had happened the past day: Amy's death, Daryl saving from heat stroke, the funeral, the walker attacking me, Shane turning his gun on Dad, leaving the quarry, and Jim's death. It was safe to say I had a lot on my mind. When I looked up at the C.D.C it was nothing like the pictures I had seen of it before, there was a military camp set up in front of it and everyone in it was dead, and yet there didn't appear to be any walkers. Daryl killed the engine and I hopped off the bike, but didn't walk towards the camp, I waited for a cue from someone to advance.

The smell of rotting civilians and soldiers filled the air making me cough along with everyone else.

"Alright everybody. Keep moving. Keep quiet." Shane instructed. The walk way up to the building was long and full of more bodies which I carefully stepped around, these were people once and should be treated as such. I had my bow drawn at the ready and I walked bes

ide Carl, who was holding Lori's hand tightly, while Dad and Shane led the group. By the time we made it to the doors the sun had nearly gone down, and I noticed that the metal shutters on the door were rolled down, but was it to keep the walkers out or to keep something equally as bad in? Dad started pounding on the door when I heard grunting and growling behind us.

"Walkers!" Daryl warned. I turned around and stood in front of Lori and Carl and shot the walker closest to me then ran up to it and retrieved my arrow while I still could, before we might get over run. I saw Daryl grabbing his bolt from the other walker looking very pissed off.

"You led us to this graveyard! It was the wrong damn call!" He yelled at Dad.

"Shut up! You hear me, shut up!" Shane yelled getting in his face, but I saw that Daryl was still fuming.

"We need to figure something out. We can't be this close to a city after dark." I said.

"Where are we going to go?" Lori asked sounding panicked.

"Fort Benning is still an option." Shane said and I almost snorted.

"With over 100 miles, no food, and no fuel?" Dad asked.

"125 miles. I checked on the map." Glenn said, but no one but me and Daryl payed him any attention.

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight!" Lori snapped.

"Okay, everyone back to the cars." Shane said and Daryl grabbed me by my wrist and started to drag me back to his bike.

"Wait! The camera! It moved!" Dad said and I looked back to see that he hadn't moved. I tried pulling my wrist from Daryl's grasp, but he wouldn't budge.

"Just wait a minute girl. Don't want to wake anything up with all this movin' round." he whispered and I looked down at the bodies around our feet. We were only a few feet away from the group so we could still hear everything, including Dad and Shane arguing over the camera and Dad begging whoever was controlling it to let us in. More walkers started arriving from the entrance of the C.D.C and I drew back my bow string.

"Stay close." Daryl ordered and I nodded. I would normally never allow a man to order me around like this, but I trusted Daryl and he's knows what he's doing. I saw Shane and Lori trying to drag my dad away from the doors and realized that Carl wasn't with them.

"Carl!" I cried out and I saw him run towards me. I grabbed him in a hug and held him there while Daryl shoved us behind his back. Then I hear the metal doors roll up. We all turned around and were bathed in bright white light coming from inside of the building.


	6. Our Class Trip to the CDC

“Daryl, you cover the back. Rick, you lead. T-Dog and I will take the sides.” Shane instructed and the guys stood on all sides of the group as we shuffled our way into the building. The front lobby was huge with twenty foot tall or more ceilings and a wide open space, but it was not what we were looking for.

“Hello?” Everyone started calling out.

“Close those doors. Watch for walkers.” Someone in our group said, but I didn’t recognize the voice. A gun cocked and we all raised our weapons and turned to face a scared man in the doorway with a gun. His face was pale like he hadn’t seen the sun light in weeks and his hair was nearly white, “Anybody infected?”

“One of our group was. He didn’t make it.” Dad said honestly.

“Why are you here? What do you want?” The man asked walking out of the shadows. He was clean and so were his clothes, they must have some water here.

“A chance.” Dad said.

“That’s asking an awful lot these days.” The man smirked. Then he looked over all of our faces, “You all submit to a blood test, that’s the price of admission.”

“We can do that.” Dad said lowering his gun and we all lowered our weapons in suit.

“If you’ve got any stuff to bring in get it now. Once this door closes it stays closed.” He said pointing to the door.

Dad pointed to Glenn, Daryl, T-Dog, and Shane and they went out the door to the cars to grab their stuff. While they were running out, I followed them not trusting Shane to be near my dad. I made it all the way to the car before my dad spotted me grabbing my backpack.

“Georgia! This is not the time for heroic!” He said grabbing my upper arm and dragging me back to the building. Dale closed the door behind us and our host sealed the door, Dad still hadn’t let go of my arm.

The man turned towards us, “Dr. Edwin Jenner.” He introduced.

He led us to an elevator that we all crammed into and pressed the button to lead us down to the lab.

“Doctors always go ‘round packing heat like that?” Daryl asked and I eyed the doctor’s gun.

“There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you all look harmless enough. Except you, I’ll have to keep an eye on you.” Jenner said pointing at Carl He looked up at me standing behind him and smiled and I ruffled his hair.

“Are we underground?” Carol asked as we finally stepped out of the elevator.

“Are you claustrophobic?” Jenner asked.

“A little.” Carol confessed. I didn’t understand how she could be claustrophobic underground in a huge hallway, but not in a tight little elevator. But then again, I don’t have it so I can’t judge it.

“Try not to think about it.” Jenner said. “VI, bring up the lights in the big room.”

We walked into “the big room” which was exactly as it sounded, big. We were standing on a catwalk a few feet above the ground which lead to a circle in the center of the room with desks and computers in. Huge screens lined the walls and lights hung from the roof.

“Welcome to Zone 5.” Jenner said.

“Where is everyone?” I asked quietly to myself, but apparently was still not enough.

“I’m it. It’s just me here.” Jenner answered.

“What about the person you were speaking with? VI?” Lori asked.

Jenner smirked, “VI, say hello to our guest. Tell them welcome.”

“Hello, guest. Welcome.” A computerized voice said.

……….

Jenner pulled the needle out of my arm and wrapped it in some gauze as he finished the blood test and I went to sit outside with the only other person who had finished their test, my Dad. I sat down on the floor and watched as he paced.

“Hey Peaches, can I talk to you?” He asked and I nodded. We sat down against the wall and I waited for Dad to start speaking. “I’m very proud of you. You’ve help out our group so much, but you need to listen to me. I know that you are are a young woman know and you want to help, but you are my little girl and I want to keep you safe. Please, if I ask you to do something follow that direction and in return I will try my hardest to let go and give you more responsibilities with the group, okay?” He asked.

“Okay.” I agreed and hugged him.

“I love you Peaches. You’re my favorite little deputy.”

“I love you too, Daddy.” I whispered. We broke our hug apart as more people came into the hallway after finishing their blood test.

Once everyone had their test completed, Jenner led us to yet another room that was a cafeteria. He had us all sit at one of the long tables while he brought out real utensils, plates, napkins, and glass followed by a bottle of wine and several large bowls of pasta.

Dale grabbed the bottle and started pouring everyone wine while everyone talked and laughed before he turned to Dad and Lori who were sitting on either side of Carl and me, “You know in Italy children usually have some wine with dinner. And in France.”  
“And when Georgia and Carl are in Italy or France he can have some then.” Lori said taking a sip from her glass.

“Come on. What’s it gonna hurt.” Dad said. I looked at Dad hopefully, I hadn’t had any alcohol since the last party Jenna and I had gone to months before the world ended. Lori shrugged and poured me and Carl a full glass and I waited to drink mine in favor of watching Carl’s face screw up as the alcohol passed his lips. He shoved the glass away as I took a swing from my own glass.

“Now why do you get the feeling this isn’t your first time doing that?” Carol asked.

“Please Carol, my Daddy is the town sheriff that means I have followed ever law to the letter.” I sassed and everyone laughed. I saw Daryl looking at me over the rim of his own wine glass and blushed before taking another sip.

“That’s nasty.” Carl said shoving his glass toward me and I used his to top mine off.

“Just stick to soda pop there, bud.” Shane said looking at the table. Carl reached for the soda on the table and so did Glenn.

“Not you Glenn.” Daryl said standing up and filling up glasses with the bottle nearest him.

“What?” Glenn asked.

“Keep drinking little man. I wanna see how red your face can get.” Daryl teased and I laughed as Glenn furiously blushed. I decided I like Glenn and Daryl more when they had some alcohol is there system, or maybe that was the alcohol in mine talking.

Dad stood up and raised his wine glass, “To our host.”

“To our host.” We all replied raising a glass to Jenner.

“Here’s to you, Doc. Booyah!” Daryl cheered taking a swig straight from the bottle.

“So when ya gonna tell us what the Hell happened here doc?” Shane asked killing all laughter and talking. “All the other doctors that were suppose to be figuring out what happened, where are they?” I downed the rest of my wine and refilled my glass.

“We’re celebrating, Shane. Don’t need to do this now.” Dad said.

“Woah, wait a second, this is why we’re here, right? This was your move, suppose to find all the answers. Instead we found him. We found one man. Why?” Shane snapped at Jenner.

“Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted. Many couldn’t face walking out the door, they...opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time.”

“You didn’t leave.” Andrea said, more as a question then a statement.

“I just kept working, hoping to do some good.” Jenner said.

“Dude, you are such a buzz kill, man.” Glenn said and I snorted.

……….

After we all helped clean up dinner, Jenner led us to a hallway that was full of bedrooms with two beds in each.

“After everyone left most of the facilities shut down including housing so you’ll have to make due. There’s a rec room down the hall that the kids might enjoy. Just don’t plug in the video games, or anything that draws power. Same applies, if you shower go easy on the hot water.” Jenner said and we all froze.

“Hot water?” I asked. The concept seemed so foreign.

Lori and Dad put Carl and my stuff in one room while they took the room next door ten we all sprinted to the showers. I almost cried as hot water poured over my body and I spent what felt like forward in that tiny stall just enjoying the feeling. Eventually I got out and dried off until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and saw my freckled face staring back at me, finally washed clean. My dark blue eyes looked bigger since my face was thinner, my hair was a shade lighter and a lot longer, now almost reaching the middle of my back instead of mid shoulder blade. I saw that everyone had brought the bottles from earlier down with them and they were some sitting on the bathroom counter so I grabbed a bottle of wine before going back to my room.

I saw Daryl lurking outside of Carl and my room as I walked back from the showers.

“Hey.” I said leaning on the wall across from him.

He nodded, “Whatd ya think of this place?” He asked.

“I think I just took as hot shower and I’m about to sleep in a real bed after eating a meal that didn’t come from a can. But I also think it’s too good to be true.” I said.

Daryl grunted in agreement, “Just stay safe girl.” He said. He stared at me for a moment more before he raised his hand and brushed a strand of hair out of my ear and quickly walked away.

I felt my cheeks heat up as I walked towards my room and saw that the door was open and Carl was sitting up in bed smiling at me.

“Are you and Daryl dating?” He asked excitedly.

“No!” I exclaimed, Carl raised an eyebrow at me and crossed his arms, “Look, we’re not dating, but please don’t tell Dad and Lori.” I begged.

……….

The next morning I opened my eyes and immediately regretted my choices.. Maybe drinking almost an entire bottle of wine before bed after a month of not drinking hadn’t been by best idea. I looked at the bed next to me and saw that Carl was already up, I got out of bed and grabbed my hoodie, heading to the kitchen where I hoped there would be breakfast. I ran into Dad in the hallway who looked even more hungover than I was and we walked into the kitchen together where Lori, Carl, Dale, Glenn, Jackie and T-Dog.

“Morning.” Dad grumbled as I walked over to the counter to grab some scrambled eggs and coffee.

“Are you guys hungover? Mom said you’d be hungover.” Carl said.

“Mom is right.” Dad said.

“Mom has that annoying habit.” Lori said.

I sat down at the table and took a bit of my eggs, moaning as the warm eggs entered my mouth.

“Eggs. Powdered, but I do ‘em good.” T-Dog said.

I looked over at Glenn who was looking very green and who had his head on the table and pushed my coffee towards hims before putting a hand of his shoulder and standing up to get more coffee. I needed the coffee.

“Where did all this come from?” Dad asked.

“Jenner. He thought we could use it. Also I have pain pills.” Lori said holding up a bottle and everyone at the table lunged towards her to get relief from the pounding headaches we all had.

“JoJo don’t ever ever ever let me drink again.” Glenn mumbled and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and rubbed them briefly until Lori handed me two pain pills which I nearly dry swallowed in an attempt to kill my hangover.

Shane walked into the room glaring at Lori who looked very uncomfortable. Andrea, Carol, and Sophia walked in behind him, but I noticed that Daryl still wasn’t there as Jenner walked into the room and figured he was skulking off his hangover.

“Doctor, I don’t mean to slam you with questions first thing…” Dale started.

“But you will anyways.” Jenner said.

“Well...we didn’t come here for the eggs.” Andrea said.

Jenner led us to the big room and we ran into Daryl on the way who was actually looking okay for someone who had been drinking the night before. Jenner turned on the computer and pointed to one of the screens hanging on the way.

“VI, give me playback of TS-19.” Jenner said and a brain scan from several angles showed up on the screen, “Few people ever got a chance to see this, very few.”

“Is that a brain?” Carl asked.

“An extraordinary brain.” Jenner said with a smile, “Not that it mattered in the end, take us in for and E.I.V.” Jenner said.

“Enhancing internal view.” The computer said as the image changed to show us the nerves in the brain.

“See those lights? It’s a person’s life experiences. Memories. It’s everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of lights is you-the thing that makes you unique and human.” Jenner said.

“You don’t make sense ever?” Daryl asked looking at the screen with his brow furrowed, looking so cute.

“Those are synapses, electrical impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death.” Jenner explained.

“Death? That's what this is? A vigil?” My dad asked.

“Yes. Or rather, the playback of the vigil.” Jenner said.

“This person died? Who?” Andrea asked.

“Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, scan forward to the first event.” The computer moved the video forward to a place where the nerves in the brain had turned from blue to black.

“What is that?” Glenn asked.

“It’s invading the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shut down, then the major organs, then death,” he whispers as the brain goes completely black on the screen, “Everything you were or will be...gone.”

“Is that what happened to Jim?” I heard Sophia ask quietly and Carol nodded. I looked over and saw Andrea silently crying.

Jenner looked confused so Lori told him, “She lost someone two days ago. Her sister.”

“I lost someone too. I know how devastating it is.” Jenner said sadly before looking back at the screen, “VI, scan to the second event. The resurrection times vary widely. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes and the longest we heard was eight hours. In the case of this patient, two hours and one minute and seven seconds.” Red sparks started in the brain, but only at the vary base of it, not the entire brain like before.

“It restarts the brain?” I asked.

“No, just the brain stem. Basically it gets them up and moving.” Jenner explained.

“But they’re not alive?” Dad asked.

“You tell me.” Jenner said.

“It’s nothing like before. Most of the brain is dark.” I said.

“Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn’t come back The _you_ part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct. VI power down the main screen and the workstations.”

“You have no idea what this is, do you?” Andre asked once the computers and screen powered down.

“It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…” Jenner listed.

“Or the wrath of God.” Jackie said.

“Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere.” Andrea said.

“There are others, right? Other facilities.” Carol said.

“Maybe. Everything went down. Communications, directives, all of it. I’ve been in the dark for almost a month.” Jenner said.

“So there nothing anywhere? Nothing. Is that what you’re saying?” Andrea said and Jenner’s silence was enough. We were alone, the entire world was gone and we had no answers.

“Man, I’m gonna get shitfaced drunk again.” Daryl said rubbing his hand over his face.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked. It was a strange feeling not knowing if there was anyone left alive in Georgia, in America, in the world. It was scary to think about.

“Dr. Jenner, I know this is taxing for you and I hate to ask more questions, but that clock...it’s counting down. What happens at zero?” Dale said pointed to the left wall. I looked over and saw a clock that I had seen many times since our arrival, but only now did I notice it was menacingly counting down.

“The basement generators, they run off of fuel.” Jenner said plainly.

“...and then?” Dad led.

Jenner walked away, which combined with the counting down clock was not a good sign.

“VI, what happens when the powers runs out?” Dad asked, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer.

“When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur.” VI answered.

“That doesn't sound good.” I muttered..

Dad, Shane, Glenn, and T-Dog went down to look at the generators while the rest of us waited in our rooms, Lori dragging Carl and me to her and Dad’s room. We noticed that the air conditioning stopped and the lights dimmed slightly and the they went off entirely. We all poked our heads out of the doors as Jenner walked by in a nice shirt and his lab coat with a bottle of whiskey.

“It’s not me. Zone 5 is shutting itselfs done.” Jenner said as he continued walking and we all followed.

“Hey! Hey, what the Hell does that mean? Hey, man. I’m talkin’ ta you!” Daryl yelled as he ran to catch up with Jenner.

“What do you mean it’s shutting itself down?” I asked as I saw the boys run up the stairs from the generator room.

“Jenner. What’s happening?” Dad barked.

“The system is dropping all the nonessential uses the power. It’s designed to keep the computers running till the last possible second. That started as we approached the half hour mark.” Jenner said pointing at the clock before taking a swig of whiskey and Daryl grabbed the bottle out of his hand.

“It was the French. They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While other people were bolting out the doors, and committing suicide in the hallway, they stayed in the labs until the end. They thought they were close to a solution. But it’s over. The world runs on fossil fuel, I mean, how stupid is that?” Jenner asked.

“Lori grab our thing. Everybody get your stuff. We’re getting out of here _now_!” Dad ordered and everyone started to leave, but sirens started going off and the main screen lite up with the countdown clock to communication.

“Doc, what’s going on here?” Daryl asked.

“Y’all heard Rick! Go get your stuff.” Shane said and Jenner hit a button and metal door dropped blocking all our exits.

“Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!” Glenn said.

I heard Dad yell Shane’s names and turned to see Shane run to tackle Daryl who was trying to beat Jenner with the whiskey bottle. T-Dog and Shane had to literally pick him up to stop him.

“There’s no point in getting out. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed. I told you once the front door is closed it wouldn’t open again. You heard me say that. It’s better this way.” Jenner said.

“What is? What happens in 28 minutes?” Dad asked angrily.

“Do you know what this place is!? We protect the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strands that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don’t want to get off! Ever! In the case of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack for example, H.I.Ts are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out. H.I.Ts are high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives. It sets the air on fire.” Jenner said. My hand flew to my mouth and I stood there frozen in shock. Dad walked over and wrapped Lori, Carl, and I in a hug. I saw Carol and Sophia crying and hugging each other and Glenn holding his head in his hands over my dad’s shoulder.

Daryl threw the bottle at the door and started yelling at Jenner to open it. Once the shock wore off, the panic set in and everyone started clawing the walls trying to get out. Shane came running out of a storage closet with axes and handed one to Daryl and the two of them started beating down the door. Daryl stopped swinging at the door and ran over to Jenner raisin it threateningly.

“Daryl stop it! Hurting him isn’t going to get us off of here!” I said. T-Dog took the ax from Daryl who walked over and grabbed my wrist, dragging me away from Jenner and pushing me to sit in a chair by the door while he paced around. Everyone was still fighting and Shane pulled a gun on Jenner at one point which convinced him to lower the door and the minute it was down Daryl grabbed my wrist and dragged me out followed by everyone else. Glenn ran up next to me and stayed by my side as we raced up the stairs.

We made to it the front entrance and sunlight was pouring through the wall of windows. Glenn shot the windows, but the bullets just bounced off.

“Damn it!” I yelled. I thought we might finally be in the clear.

“Rick. I think I have something that might help.” Carol said. We all turned to face her and saw that she was holding a grenade in her hand that she had just fished out of her purse.

“Everyone move back and cover your ears!” Dad yelled and I ran over to Lori and Carl as Dad pulled the pin ad ran over to us. A moment late there was a flash of light, a loud _BOOM_ , and a shock wave, and then we were free. There were still a few walkers out which we quickly took down with our knives before rushing to our cars. I rushed over to Daryl’s bike and started to get on, but he stopped me.

“Get down JoJo.” He yelled and I dropped to the ground on my stomach putting the bike between me and the C.D.C and covering my head. I felt Daryl’s weight drop on tops of me as a huge explosion erupted, spraying flames and debris everywhere. The shock wave hit a moment later shaking the ground around us and the air was hot from the fire. Daryl got off of me and helped me up and onto the bike. And we drove away.


	7. Highway from Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going out of town for the holidays and should be back on track with writing in January 3. Happy Holidays!!

I was still in shock after the events that took place at the C.D.C. and we were now heading towards Fort Benning which was 125 miles away. We were pulled over on the side of the road to siphon off gas from some abandoned cars. I hopped off Daryl’s motorcycle and stretched my legs before I saw Lori walking over to me with her arms crossed which was never a good sign.

“Georgia, can I talk to you?” She asked.

“Of course.” I said.

“Your Dad and I want you to come ride in the car with us. We don’t feel comfortable with you riding a motorcycle with a man ten years old than you who we don’t know.” Lori explained.

“What!? I’m completely safe on the bike and I know Daryl, you guys don’t. You all avoid him ‘cause he’s Merel brother, but he’s not like that.” I argued.

“Your father and I have already made the decision. And don’t pull the ‘I’m eighteen’ or ‘you’re not my real mom’ with me. When we get back on the road, you’re riding in the car with your family.” Lori commanded and she walked away. I huffed and kicked a rock near my feet, but knew that in the end I couldn’t really defy Lori and my dad.

We had cut down on the amount of cars we are using, now we had our car, the RV, and Daryl’s bike. I looked around for Daryl to let him know what to wait up for me and saw him walking over to the bike and decided to let him know not to wait up for me

“Hey Daryl.” I said and he grunted in response, “Okay. So...my dad and Lori want me to ride with them for a bit so I won’t be on the bike.” I said.

“Fine. Don’t need some little girl hanging on me all day anyways.” He snapped.

“Oh...um...sorry. I didn’t know I was bothering you.” I mumbled as I hurried to the car. I felt like such an idiot, of course the cute old guy I had a crush on didn’t want to hang out with some little girl. I jumped in the car and we started driving. I could feel Lori, Dad, and Carol looking back at me periodically and I wished I still had my iPod so I could put my headphones in and drone them out.

Lori laughed, “I was just thinking about our trip to the Grand Canyon with the kids.” She explained and Dad started laughing, even I couldn’t help, but crack a smile at the memory of the disatorist trip.

“I don’t remember that.” Carl said.

“No, you wouldn’t. You were just a baby.” Lori said.

“Besides, we never made it past Fort Worth.” I commented.

“No, you got sick. I never knew a baby could throw up so much. And all over your sister!” Dad said and I cringed at the memory and looked over to see Carl making a disgusted face.

“Once the doctors in Texas assured us you’d live we turned around and drove home.” lori explained.

“That sucks.” Carl commented and I laughed.

“No, it was a good trip. The best.” Lori said.

“Can we go see it now? The Grand Canyon? I’d like too.” Carl said.

“I would too. Can we go?” Sophia asked.

“We’d never go without you and your mom.” Dad promised. “Oh no.”

I looked out the front window to see what the problem was and saw that a semi truck had flipped onto its side, blocking the entire road. There were hundreds of car piled on the side of the road. Daryl circled his bike back around and motioned for us to follow him off the road and around the truck. We pulled back onto the road and carefully maneuvered around abandoned cars. The RV stopped in front of us and we climbed out of the car and as we approached the RV I saw that the engine was once again smoking, we really needed to find a permanent fix to the radiator hose.

“Problem Dale?” Dad asked and I walked away as Shane walked up. I didn’t feel like standing around while the three of them fought. I saw Daryl and Glenn going through the empty cars and grabbing supplies we needed that people had left, part of me felt like this was wrong, but the other part of me hadn’t brushed their teeth in two days and was desperate for some toothpaste. I walked over to where everyone else was standing on the side of the RV.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff we can find here. I can siphon off some more gas for a start.” T-Dog said.

“We could use some more water.”  I said.

“And food.” Glenn called from a nearby car.

“This is a graveyard.” Lori said and we all turned to look at her, “I don’t know how I feel about this.”

We all looked between each other and seemed to agree that supplies were more important than having a clean conscience.

“Alright. Come on y’all. Just look around. Gather what you can.” T-Dog said and I walked over to a minivan that still had two bodies sitting in the front seat that had flies buzzing around them. I grabbed on of the suitcases from the open trunk and started going through it. And right there on top was a travel vanity bag which I greedily opened and found toothpaste, hair ties, a brush, and a stick of deodorant; I felt like crying as I saw my treasures which I quickly stuffed in the backpack that I had grabbed from the car. I carried it at my side of that I could have my quiver and bow strapped across my back and I walked over to where Carl, Lori, Sophia, and Carol were to see if they needed to throw anything they had found in my pack.

“If anyone finds any medium shirts, size 8 shoes, or 32 B bra, let me know because all I have that isn’t covered in walker blood is a few dresses.” I said as I approached.

“I found a large flannel, but I figured you could make it work.” Lori said holding a blue flannel up for me.

“Great I’ll trade you for a brush and some hair ties.” I said.

“You are a lifesaver.” Lori said. Even though we weren’t related we had very similar long, thick, dark brown hair at that been Hell to deal with since the world started ending. I grabbed the shirt from here and walked a little further down to see if I could find any kids clothes, so far we had nothing for Sophia and Carl. A hand flew over my mouth and I yelped and shoved my elbow back into the stomach of my attacker.

“Easy girl. Be quiet and do as I say.” Daryl whispered in my ear removing his hand. I turned to look at him and he grabbed my hand and led me towards a car and shoving me down, “There’s a huge herd of walkers comin’. Need ta hide and be quiet. Wait here till me or yer daddy get ya.” He said and he took off leaving me alone under a car. I laid there holding my breath, waiting for the herd of the dead to come by, like waiting for the end. I heard shuffling and moaning approaching and I hoped everyone was okay and I moved my head around as much as I could and as quietly as I could looking for someone under the nearby cars by there was nothing. The feet moving in my line of sight had started to thin out, but waited for Daryl or Dad like I was supposed to, not wanting to risk running into a walker or making noise and drawing them back. I heard a cry that sounded a lot like Sophia followed by growls and started to move, but then Daryl dropped down in front of me and held a finger to his lips as he climbed under the car.

“Okay. C’mon.” He said grabbing my hand after a minute, dragging me out from under the car and once we were out we saw everyone gathered at the edge of the highway facing the woods. I ran over to join them and saw the Dad and Sophia were missing and Carol was crying. Dad came running out of the woods a few minutes later without Sophia, “Daryl, Shane, Glenn, T-Dog, JoJo. With me.” Dad said.

“T-Dog is down for the count.” Daryl said hopping the guard rail to stand by my dad and Shane, Glenn and I followed. We walked until we were at a small creek and Dad jumped in before turned to look at us.

“I lost Sophia. I left her right here in this clearing while I drew the walkers away and when I came back she was gone. I led the walkers off in that direction, up the creek.” Dad explained.

“Without a paddle, seems where we’ve landed.” Daryl commented as he jumped into the water as well.

“Did she try to go back to the highway?” I asked.

“I told to go back the way we came if I didn’t come back soon and to keep the sun on her left shoulder, but I was only gone for five minutes. She shouldn’t have left!” Dad said. He had worked missing child cases before and knew how to handle them, but he seemed more frantic about this missing girl. Probably because he knew her and we are loving in a world full of the walking dead.

“Hey Short Round, why don’t you stand off to one side, you’re mucking up the trail.” Daryl called to Glenn. Glenn looked down at his feet and took a step closer to me which ade Daryl scowl. Good, he needed to pick how he felt about me and stick with it.

“Don’t be mean.” I called to Daryl while he walked up the creekbed towards Glenn and me to look at the trail.

“Kid’s tired and scared, man. She had her close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck.” Shane said and I rolled my eyes internally as I watched Daryl examine the trail.

“Got clear prints right here. She did like you said, headed back to the highway. Let’s spread out, make our way back.” Daryl said leading us all on Sophia’s trail and after a while he knelt down, “She was donin’ just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way.” Daryl said pointing back towards the creek.

“Why would she do that?” Glenn asked.

“Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off.” Shane suggested.

“Maybe there was another walker.” I suggested.

Daryl shook his head, “I don’t see any other footprints. Just hers.”

“So what do we do? All of us press on?” Shane asked.

“No. Better if you, Glenn, and JoJo head back up to the highway. People are going to start panicking. Let them know we’re on her trail and doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm.” Dad said.

“I’ll keep ‘em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores to keep ‘em busy. C’mon.” Shane said ushering us with him. Glenn and I stayed behind him as he walked.

“So what’s up with you and Daryl?” Glenn asked.

“Do you just blurt out everything that comes to mind?” I joked, “I don’t know what’s going on with us, but you will know as soon a I do.” I promised him. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the highway and as soon as we were in sight people started asking questions. I hopped up on top of the guard rail so everyone could see me.

“We found Sophia’s trail and Dad and Daryl are doing everything they can to get her back, but in the meantime we need to get ready to leave as soon as she is found.” I told everyone.

“Right, we need more supplies and we need to clear some of the cars away so we can turn back and find a different road to Fort Benning,” Shane said and he started giving everyone their jobs while Glenn offered me a hand in getting down from the rail. As the group split up, Andrea, Dale, Shane, Glenn, and I stayed by the railing.

“Nice speech.” He commented.

“Thank you.” I said.

“Well I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait to get out of here. I’m still freaked out from that herd that came through. Or whatever you’d call that.” I heard Andrea say.

“I’m still pretty rattled too.” I confessed.

“Yeah, what was that?” Glenn asked. “All of them just marching along like that.

“A herd. That sounds about right. We’ve seen it. It’s like the night the camp got attacked. Some wondering pack.” Shane said, “Okay people. We’ve still got a lot to do, let’s stay on it. JoJo, go see if Lori needs any help.”

I walked over to Lori who was packing up a bag that she had found in one of the cars, “Do you need any help?” I asked.

“Yeah Georgia, would you mind watching your brother for me for a bit?” She asked.

“Sure. Where is he?” I asked and Lori’s eyes went wide. Our heads whipped around as we looked for him and my heart started racing. Suddenly I heard him shirek and Lori and I took off in his direction.

“Mom! JoJo! Shane! I found something cool!” He called out as he ran up to us holding a leather wrap. He looked excited and unharmed so I decided to not yell at him for giving us a heart attack. He dropped the wrap on the ground and unrolled it to reveal several knives. “It’s an arsenal!”

“That’s cool, bud. Go give ‘em to Dale.” Shane said cooly not looking up from the hood of a car he was under and I frowned as I knelt on the ground by the weapons.

“Check this one out! It’s a hatchet.” Carl said pulling it from it place and holding it up.

“Careful, don’t play with those.” Lori told him and I started looking through the collection for any I might want to keep.

“Can I keep one?” Carl asked.

“Are you crazy?” Lori asked.

“JoJo gets to keep one.” Carl complained. “JoJo, Shane, tell her to let me keep one.”

“Hey man. Go give them all to Dale now. Go.” Shane snapped and I saw Carl flinch. I wrapped up the knives and handed them to Carl to carry to the RV mentally cursing Shane. Just because he had a crush on my stepmom and may or may not have slept with her doesn’t mean he gets to talk to my little brother like that.

……….

The sun was setting over the highway by the time Dad and Daryl made it back to the group, with no Sophia in sight. Lori rushed over to grabbed Carol who looked ready to collapse and I jogged over with Carl and Glenn.

“Her trail went cold. We’ll pick it up again at first light.” Dad explained as more people gathered.

“You can’t leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods.” Carol sobbed.

“Out in the dark’s no good. We’d be trippin’ over ourselves. More people get lost.” Daryl said surprisingly calmly.

“But she’s twelve. She can’t be out there on her own. You didn’t find anything?” She asked my dad.

“I know this is hard. But I’m asking you not to panic. We know she was out there.” Dad said.

“And we tracked her for a while.” Daryl added

“We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I’ve asked him to oversee this.” Dad said. Suddenly I realized that Dad trusted Daryl and that I rode in that cramped little car on the way to the highway solely because Lori didn’t like or trust Daryl!

“Is that blood?” Carol asked pointing to Daryl’s knee.

“We took down a walker, but there was no sign it was ever near Sophia.” Dad promised.

“How do you know?” I asked, not questioning them just curious. Dad and Daryl looked at each other before turning back to us.

“We cut the sonabitch open and made sure.” Daryl answered and Carol sat down on the railing, trying to catch her breath, Lori sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“How could you just leave her out there on her own to begin with? How could you just leave her?” Carol spat at Dad.

“Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance.” Dad explained bending down to be eye level with Carol.

“Sounds like he didn’t have a choice.” Shane said.

“How was she suppose to find her way back on her own? She’s just a child.” Carol cried. I looked down at Carl beside me and saw that he was crying as well, Sophia and he had become close friends. I drew him to my side and led him away from the group so he wouldn’t hear his friends mother blaming our father.

………..

The next morning we all gathered around to organize a search party and Dad brought out the knives that Carl had found yesterday.

“Everybody takes a weapon.” He said and people started reaching for them. I already had my knife strapped to my thigh, my bow, and a gun tucked into the back of my pants justs in case.

“These aren’t the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?” Andrea asked.

“We’ve been over that. Daryl, Rick, JoJo, and I are carrying. We’re all trained. We can’t have people poppin’ off rounds every time a tree rustles.” Shane said.

“It’s not the trees I’m worried about.” Andrea said.

“Say someone fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it’s game over, for all of us. So you need to get over it.” Shane snapped.

“The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around, come back down the other side. Chances are she’ll be by the creek. It’s her only landmark.” Daryl instructed.

“Stay quiet, stay sharp. Always keep space between you, but always stay within sight of each other.” Dad said and everyone broke to grab their bags and soe supplies for the trip.

“I’m coming with you. You need as many people so you can cover more ground.” Carl said walking up to Lori, Dad, and me.

“You’re call. I can’t always be the bad guy.” Lori said.

Dad thought for a minute, “Okay. But always within our sight, no exceptions.” And with that we all headed into the woods, I had an arrow already notched in my bow and the string pulled back ready for anything to attack the moment we hit the tree line. After a mile or so Daryl motioned for us to get down and be quiet then pointed ahead to a tent that was set up in a clearing.

“She could be in there.” Shane said.

“Could be a whole bunch of things in there.” Daryl said. “Everyone packing, follow me.” He said leading us forward to the tent, but not before Glenn could send me a smirk, I stuck my tongue out at him like the mature adult that I am. Daryl drew his knife while walking forward and looked in the tent and shrugged.

Dad motioned for Carol to come over, “Call out softly. If she’s in there your’s is the first voice she should hear.”

“Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? It’s Mommy. We’re all here, baby.” Carol called. No one had come out of the tent and I raised my bow and aimed it at the entrance. Daryl went into the tent while Dad and Shane waited at the entrance for a few moments before he came back out.

“Ain’t her. Some guy. Did what Jenner suggested, opted out. Ain’t that what he called it?” He asked. Out of nowhere, church bells started ringing in the distance and we all looked around.

“Aren’t those bells all just a recording now?” Glenn asked.

“She could have turned it on. And if it’s an old enough church it might still have the bells of a rope.” I answered.

“Come one!” Daryl said leading us towards the sound of the bells. A quarter mile later we stumbled into the cemetery behind the small church.

“That can’t be it. No steeple, no bells.” Shane said and I threw my arms up, did no one listen to me?

“They play the bells on recording in most churches now!” I snapped as we made our way across the graveyard. We made it to the front doors and Dad slowly pushed them open to find four walkers sitting in the pews, “Yeah, I don’t think Sophia’s here.” I said as I pulled the string of my bow back and hit the nearest walker in the face. Dad and Daryl quickly took down two more walkers while Shane was still tabbing his with a knife long after it was dead.

Daryl walked up to the Crucifix at the front of the church, “Yo J.C. You takin’ request?”

The bells started ringing again, clearly coming from above us and we ran back out of the church to try and find a way to the top and instead we found a speaker hooked up to a timer, who would have thought?

“Wow. A timer. To bad no mentioned that several times before we came here.” I snapped.

“What do ya want from me, woman?” Daryl snapped back and I put my hands on my hips, I was getting better at standing up to him.

“Okay! Enough! This isn’t going to help Sophia.” Dad said.

“I’m gonna go back in for a bit.” Carol said and everyone started to walk away. I walked back into the church and huffed as I sat down in one of the back pews and just closed my eyes for a minute before we reconvened outside.

“Y’all are gonna follow the creek bed back. Daryl, you’re in charge. Me and Rick, we’re gonna hang back, search the area for another hour or so just to be thorough.” Shane said.

“You’re splitin’ us up?” Daryl asked.

“You sure about this?” I asked, I was very worried about leaving my dad alone with an unstable Shane right now.

“Yeah, we’re sure.” Dad said.

“I wanna stay too. I’m her friend.” Carl said and Lori and Dad looked between each other.

“Just be careful okay.” Lori told Carl.

I walked over to Dad, “Need me to stay?”

“No. I’d rather you go back with the group where I know you’ll be safe. I don’t like having you two out here, but at least I can keep an eye on Carl. You’re one of the only trained people in this group, they need you.” He said then he gave me a short hug before we parted ways.

……….

Glenn and I were walking side by side, swapping funny stories. I had just finished telling him, in full detail, about the trip to the Grand Canyon and we were both laughing.

“So this is it? This is the whole plan?” Carol asked suddenly.

“I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups.” Daryl said.

“Carrying knives and pointy sticks.” Andrea sassed and I resisted the urge to punch her, she was taking this stupid gun thing way too far. “I see you and your daughter have a gun.” I looked over at Lori who was holding the gun Daryl had found in the tent earlier that day.

“Why, do you want it?” Lori snapped. “Here, take it. I’m sick of the looks you’re giving me. All of you.” She said throwing the gun into Andrea’s hand. Lori sat down on the log Carol was sitting on, “Honey, I can’t imagine what you are going through and I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face everytime you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn’t hesitate, did he? I don’t know that any of us would have gone after him the way he did, or made the hard decision he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently. Y’all look to him and then you blame him when he’s not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you.”

“...Lori, I’ve known you since I was five and that was by far the most badass thing you have ever done.” I said with a proud smile. Andrea walked over to her and gave Lori the gun back. “We should keep moving.” I said and I walked to the front of the group.


	8. Shot Through the Heart

We walked for a few more minutes before a gunshot sounded in the distance. I looked back at everyone who all looked equally as confused.

“Let’s wait here for a minute. Rick, Shane, and Carl should be right behind us anyways.” Lori suggested, but after five minutes of waiting everyone started getting restless.

“We should keep moving back to the highway. I’m sure there’s no reason to worry.” Andrea said and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“We all heard it.” Daryl said.

“Why one? Why just one gunshot?” Lori wondered.

“Maybe it was a lone walker.” I suggested.

“Don’t patronize me, Georgia!” Lori snapped. I looked at Glenn who was sitting across from me and tried to portray my annoyance at my stepmom in a single glance. “Rick wouldn’t risk a gunshot to take down one walker, neither would Shane. They’d do it quietly.”

“Shouldn’t they have caught up with us by now?” Carol asked in a quiet voice.

“There’s nothing we can do ‘bout it anyway. Can’t run around these woods chasin’ echoes.” Daryl said.

“So what do we do?” Lori asked.

“We head back up to the highway and reconvene with Dale, T-Dog, Dad, Shane, and Carl then discuss our next move.” I said.

“We beat the bush for Sophia. Head back up to the highway.” Daryl said.

“Georgia’s right, they’ll hook up with us back at the RV.” Andrea said and I glared at her as she used my real name.

WE started walking again and I fell in step with Glenn while Daryl led us through the woods. Andrea and Carol were behind us and Andrea was assuring the hurting mother that we were all hoping and praying for Sophia along with her.

“...For what it’s worth.” Andrea finished.

Daryl whipped around and walked towards them, “I’ll tell you what it’s worth, not a damn thing. It’s a waste of time all this hoping and praying. ‘Cause we’re gonna locate that little girl, she’s gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good Lord.” I smiled at Daryl referring to himself as zen and also at how much he care for Sophia. He was still trying to act all tough and macho, but it was obvious that he had a soft side and that he care for our rag tag team of survivors. 

“You’re smiling.” Glenn pointed out in a singsong voice.

“Shut up.” I muttered.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” 

“Technically you just did.” I teased.

“You suck! But seriously?” he asked and I nodded, “What is the deal with you calling Lori by her first name and her calling you Georgia instead of JoJo?”

I sighed before launching into my tragic backstory, “Well, if you haven’t figured out by now, Lori is not my real mom. My biological mom and my dad were dating in college and wound up pregnant with me. She never wanted kids so she told Dad she wanted to get rid of me, but he begged her to keep me. She finally agreed and when I was born I was immediately given to my Dad, she never held me, she’s not listed on my birth certificate, Dad doesn’t even have a photo of her. Now, because my dad was young and stupid, and I was born in Georgia in May he named me Georgia May, but since that’s a mouth full he called me JoJo. He met Lori when I was five and I knew she wasn’t my mom so I always called her Lori. Why she insists on calling me Georgia, we’ll never know, but that’s the way it’s been for the last thirteen years.” I explained. “Your turn!”

“What?” He asked, surprised.

“I let you know about my past, know I want to know about Glenn Rhee, Korean, pizza delivery boy, extraordinaire.” I teased.

“Um...hey Daryl! How much further?” Glenn called out.

“You are the worst.” I said.

“You love me, Georgia!” He said throwing his arms open.

“If you ever call me that I will put an arrow through you!” I threatened teasingly and Glenn pretended to look hurt.

“Y’all be quiet. There still walkers ‘round.” Daryl scowled and he glared at Glenn and me. I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed, I was beyond tired of his hot and cold act and his treating me like a child. I decided that I was going to try and do the unthinkable and talk to him tonight. “It’s about a hundred yards, as the crow flies.” Daryl answered.

“Too bad we aren’t crows.” Andrea muttered before wandering off only to scream loudly a few moments later.

I notched an arrow and drew my bow as fast as I could before running in the direction of the noise along with everyone else. Andrea was on the ground screaming with a walker closing in on her. Right as I was about to a fire my arrow I heard hooves and a woman on horse back wielding a baseball bat came and hit the walker.

“Lori and JoJo Grimes?” The woman asked as she turned to face us in the saddle. Lori and I stepped forward. I looked up at the girl who had bright green eyes, short brown hair, and was wearing cowboy boots.

“Rick sent me. One of you needs to come with me now!” The young woman demanded.

“Wait, what?” I asked.

“There’s been an accident. Carl’s been shot. He’s still alive, but one of you needed to come with me now.” The woman said. I felt myself go numb and my ears started ringing, this couldn’t be happening again. I watched Lori slip her backpack off and approach the horse.

“Woah, woah, woah, we don’t know this girl. You can’t get on that horse!” Daryl shouted and I walked forward as well and he grabbed my arm to stop me from getting closer.

“Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?” The woman asked as Lori mounted the horse behind her and several people nodded, “Backtrack to Fairburn Road, about two miles down is our farm. You’ll see a mailbox with the name Greene on it!” She said as she kick the horse's side and it started to gallop.

“My little brother’s been shot...my brother’s been shot.” I muttered and Daryl squeezed my arm where he was still holding it.

“We need to get back to the highway, now!” Daryl said and he started walking us forward.

……….

“Shot? What do you mean shot?” Dale asked once everyone told him what happened. I was leaning on the guardrail in silence, biting my nails and worrying about my family.

“I don’t know, Dale. I wasn’t there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere on a horse like Zorro on a horse and took Lori.” Glenn explained frantically.

“You let her?” Dale asked looking at Daryl who was supposed to be in charge.

“Climb down out of my asshole, man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori and JoJo’s names and Carl’s.” Daryl defended.

“I heard screams.” Dale said.

“Andrea got attacked by a walker. It was a close call.” I commented quietly. Glenn looked over and came and sat next to me. Andrea stormed over to the RV and slammed the door behind her as she climbed in.

“We need to find that farm.” I said firmly looking up at everyone.

“We can’t Sophia is still out there.” Carol said.

“Carol, the group is split. We’re scattered, we’re weak.” Dale said.

“What if she comes back and we’re not here.” Carol said.

“Look, I hate to suggested that we split up any further, but my family is on that farm and my little brother has been shot, so I am going. I can drive, I’ll take a car and go and the rest of you can stay and look for Sophia.” I said standing up.

“No!” Everyone said, shooting me down.

“If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful.” Andrea argued.

“Okay. We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow morning I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I’ll hold her tonight, stay with the RV.” Daryl strategized.

“If the RV is staying, I am too.” Dale said.

“Thank you. Thank you both.” Carol said tearily. 

Andrea shrugged, “I’m in.” 

“Well, if you’re all staying then I’m…” Glenn started.

“Not you Glenn, you’re going. Take Carol’s Cherokee and get JoJo back the farm.” Dale ordered.

“I don’t need a babysitter!” I scoffed.

“Me? Why is it always me?” Glenn asked exasperated.

“We need to find this farm and reconnect our people and see what’s going on. But most important, you have to get JoJo and T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm and see if they have an antibiotics because if not, T-Dog will die. No joke.” Dale said gravely. I watched as Daryl perked up and walked over to his motorcycle. He pulled off some rags that were hanging on it then reached into the side bag and pulled out  ziplock bag full of pill bottles and crystal on the bottom. Daryl walked back over and handed me the bag of pills before throwing the rags at Dae.

“Keep your oily rags off my brother’s motorcycle.” Daryl said then grabbed my hands and raised them so he could open the bag and dig through it with both hands, “Why did you wait till now to say anything? Got my brothers stash. Crystal, X. Don’t need that. Got some kickass painkillers. Oxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither, it’s first class.” he said throwing a few bottle to Glenn and Dale.

“Those are pretty hardcore antibiotics.” I commented. I knew that people used them to get high, but this seemed organized to be entirely an addiction.

Daryl shrugged, “Merel got the clap on occasion.” I felt my face screw up in disgust at the thought.

……….

We packed up T-Dog, Glenn, and my families things into the Cherokee and drove off. By the time we reached the farm it was dark and I barely waited for the car to stop before jumping out and sprinting up to the porch. 

I threw the front door open, “Carl? Dad?” I called out. An old man with thin white hair and kind eyes approached me.

“Well you must be Rick’s daughter. He said you would be the one rushing in here. I’m Hershal. You’re family is just through here.” He said calmly in a gentle southern accent and he grabbed my hand and led me into his beautiful farm house. He opened one of the first doors we came to and my body seemed to freeze when I saw Carl laying on the bed, pale and cover with sweat, and a bandage soaked in blood on his side. Lori was laying on the bed next to next stroking his hair and Dad was sitting in a chair next to him with an IV in his arm. Giving blood for Carl, I realised, and he must have given a lot considering how pale he was.

I turned to Hershel, “Thank you. My dad isn’t looking to good. I have the same blood type as he and Carl, A Positive. Let me know if I can help.” 

“I will darling. Thank you. Right now, your family needs you.” He said and he closed the door as he left.

I sat down on the opposite side of the bed from Lori and grabbed Carl’s hand and cried. I felt Dad lean forward and put a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s okay, Peaches. He’s gonna be just fine. Just like I was.” He assured me. After a minute he asked, “Is everyone here?”

“No. It’s just me, T-Dog, and Glenn. T-Dog has blood poisoning and I was a mess so Dale insisted that Glenn drive us. The others are staying on the highway tonight so they can make some sort of sign for Sophia to find us if she makes it back to the highway.” I explained and Dad nodded before sitting back down.

There was a knock at the door and Glenn poked his head in followed by the woman on horseback from earlier.

“Hi. I’m Maggie. I’m Hershel's daughter. Your boys just got here with some pain medicine for Carl, Hershel will give it to him when later. I brought you a sandwich.” She said handing me a plate. She had the same kind demeanor as her father, but was obviously badass enough to kill a walker with a baseball bat on horseback and I immediately liked her.

“Thank you, Maggie. I’m Georgia, but everyone calls me JoJo. Sorry we had to meet under such weird circumstances.” I said and I held out my hand to shake hers.

“Nice to meet you. Y’all let me know if you need anything.” She said before she waved goodbye and left the room.

A while later Hershel came in to take Carl’s blood pressure and he was followed by Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog. Glen took his hat off the minute we enter the room.

“Hey. We wanted to let you know we’re here.” Glenn said.

“Whatever you need.” T-Dog agreed and I smiled through my tears. Maggie led them out of the room as Hershel pulled back the blanket covering Carl. I let out an awful sob as I saw that his stomach was swollen and based on the color, I would say it was filled with blood. I looked at dad and lori who were both crying and hanging their heads.

“They don’t get back soon, we’re gonna have a decision to make.” Hershel said.

“Who gets back?” I asked.

“Shane and their man Otis went about five miles down the road hours ago to get some surgical equipment.” Dad explained.

“What’s the decision?” I asked.

“Whether to operate on your brother with or without the respirator.” Hershel said. I had obviously missed most of their medical discussion so I decided to let the adult handle it and just be their for my brother.

“You said that wouldn’t work.” Lori pointed out.

“I know. It’s extremely unlikely, but we can’t wait much longer.” Hershel said. Lori stood up and walked out of the room and Dad tried to stand up and follow her, but stumbled. I rushed to his side and helped him stand and he walked out of the room leaving Hershel, Carl, and me behind.

“Thank you for taking care of my brother.” I muttered.

“You’re quite welcome.” Hershel said putting his stethoscope on and listened to Carl’s heart and I could hear the muffled fighting of Dad and Lori outside of the window.

I stood up and looked down at Carl, “I need a minute. I’ll be right back.” I briskly walked out of the room and leaned against the hallway wall, I put my face in my hands and sunk down to the floor, taking a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. Dad and lori walked in a while later and sat down on the floor next to me. We sat there in silence, waiting for Shane and Otis to come home when Carl started coughing in the other room. We all jumped up and rushed into the room.

Hershel held Carl down as he thrashed and panted until the three of us came into the field of view.

“Where are we?” Carl asked as he looked around. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it as Lori stroked his hair.

“Hey, Little Man. That’s Hershel, we’re in his house. You had an accident.” Dad explained nodding to Hershel who was smiling down at Carl.

“It hurts a lot.” Carl whimpered.

“Oh baby, I know.” Lori said.

“Don’t worry. Chicks dig scars. Plus, you and Dad match now.” I joked and Carl smiled.

“Mom. JoJo. You should have seen it.” Carl whispered.

“Seen what?” Lori asked.

“The deer. It was so pretty, Mom. It was so close. I’ve never been…” Carl said before he froze, eyes wide open. My eyes widened and jaw dropped as I feared the worse. Carl’s back arched before he started shaking on the bed and we all reached for him on instinct.

“Don’t. It’s a seizure. If you hold him down you could hurt him.” Hershel said as he rolled Carl onto his side.

“You can’t stop it?” Lori asked.

“He just has to go through it.” Hershel explained. Dad wrapped his arms around me and Lori and I buried my face in his chest and sobbed. When the sound of Carl thrashing died down I dared to peek at him and saw that he was lying still on the bed. Hershel started looking his over.

“His brain isn’t getting enough blood. His pressure is bottoming. He needs another transfusion.” Hershel explained.

“I’m ready.” Dad said.

“If I take any more out of you, your body could shut down. You could go into a coma.” Hershel cautioned.

“I’ll do it.” I volunteered.

“I don’t like that idea.” Dad said.

“Daddy, we don’t have a choice and I want to do this.” I said. I took off my flannel shirt off so that Hershel could get to the vein in my arm. I sat down in a chair and Hershel came over with a strange machine and pushed the needle into my arm. I felt my face scrunch as the needle entered, but the pain quickly faded.

Maggie and Glenn came in with blankets and pillows later in the night. I had no idea how much blood had been taken out of me by then, but I was light headed and soaked with sweat so I was willing to beat a fair amount.

“You look like Hell.” Glenn joked.

“At least I have a reason for looking this awful, you’re just stuck looking ugly.” I teased.

“Very funny.” he said throwing a pillow at me. Maggie giggled as she put blankets on Carl’s bed and walked out of the room. I noticed Glenn’s eyes following her out.

“Glenn and Maggie sittin’ in a tree.” I sang once she was out of earshot.

“What? No!” Glenn defended and I raised an eyebrow at him, “Fine. At least I can talk to my crush. How are things going with Mr. Dixon?”

“Shut up.” I hissed as Dad and Lori walked back into the room. Glenn gave me one more smirk before he walked out.

“Hey Peaches. How you feelin’?” Dad asked running a hand through my hair before sitting down on the bed, Lori rounded to the other side and laid down next to Carl.

“Like I’ve had several units of blood pumped out of me with a primitive medical tool.” I answered.

“Very funny.” Dad smiled.

“Hey Dad. What did Carl mean about a deer?” I asked.

Dad shifted for a moment and looked at his folded hands in his lap, “Before it happened we were standing there in the woods and this deer just crossed right in front of us. I swear it just planted itself there and looked Carl right in the eye. And I looked at Carl, looking at that deer looking right back at Carl. And that moment just...slipped away. That’s what he was talking about when he woke up.”

……….

I must have drifted off to sleep because next thing I knew Dad was shaking me awake while Hershel looked over Carl.

“He’s still losing blood faster than we can replace it. And with the swelling in his abdomen we can’t wait any longer or he’s just going to slip away. Now, I need to know right now if you want me to do this, because I think your boy is out of time. You have to make a choice.” Hershel said.

“A choice?” Lori asked.

“A choice. You have to tell me what it is.

“Without the surgery, Carl will die for sure. With the surgery, there’s still a chance, but far less. We need to do this.” I said although I was sure no one was listening to me. And in a shocking turn of events, I was correct, Lori and Dad stayed staring into each other’s eyes like this was a rom com and not a matter of life and death.

“We do it.” Lori finally said tearfully to Hershel.

“Alright. Patricia, Maggie, come help me. You two decide if you want your daughter here. We could use the help, but it’s your choice.” Hershel said walking out of the room.

“JoJo, go wait with T-Dog and Glenn. I don’t want you seeing this.” Dad said.

“But Dad…” I argued.

“Please, Georgia, now!” He commanded. I stood up and walked out of the room, I walked through the house the way we had come in and went to go stand on the wrap around porch for a while.

Even in the dark, I could tell that this farm was beautiful. I had always pictured myself living in a place like this, owning a stable, writing during the day, having a future in the Georgia countryside. I closed my eyes and leaned against one of the poles and imagined what my future could have been like, the rumbling of a truck interrupted my musing. It pulled up to the front of the house quickly and Shane jumped out holding a hospital bag that I could see had equipment poking out of it. Carl was going to be okay! Lori, Dad, Hershel, T-Dog, Glenn, and Maggie came running out of the house to greet the car.

“Otis?” Hershel asked grabbing the bag from Shane

“No.” Shane whispered hanging his head.

Hershel was silent for a moment, “We say nothing to Patricia. Not till after. I need her.” And with that he turned back to the house to go operate on Carl.

“They kept block us at every turn. We only had ten rounds and he said...he said he’d cover me and that I...that I should keep going. So that’s what I did, I just...I kept going, but I looked back and he…I tried.” Shane stammered out. Maggie looked on the verge of tears and I gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. 

……….

An hour later Hershel came out the where Dad, Lori, and I were sitting on the porch and smiled.

“He seems to have stabilized.” He said. I let a huge sigh of relief and smiled while Dad hugged Hershel.

“Thank you so much!” I said.

“I don’t have words.” Lori said with a huge smile and tears running down her cheeks.

“I don’t either I wish I did.” Hershel said. “How do I tell Patricia about Otis?” 

Dad turned to look at Lori and me, “You two go to Carl and I’ll go with Hershel.”

Carl was sleeping when we walked in and I sat down on the side of the bed and held his hand. A minute later there were footsteps and I turned, expecting to see my dad, but instead saw Shane standing in the doorway. He and Lori stared and each other and I made the executive decision that I did not want to be in that room. I stood up and quietly walked out and went to the kitchen where Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog were sitting.


	9. Cherokee Rose

Life lesson: when the slightly unstable guy in your group gives himself a buzz cut, it’s usually a bad sign. When Shane walked outside the next morning with all his hair shaved off, I knew things were about to get ugly.

T-Dog, Glenn, and I were out gathering rocks to use at Otis' funeral that would be later today with Maggie and her younger sister Beth when Shane came out and slammed the front door behind him. I shot a worried looked over at Glenn who looked back at me and shrugged. I turned my head suddenly as I heard the sound of a motorcycle in the distance and knew that the rest of the group was coming.

“I’ll go tell Dad that everyone’s here.” I said putting the rocks I was holding into the wheelbarrow and went inside. I walked into the room and saw Carl was awake on the bed and Lori and Dad were talking to him while Hershel examined him.

“How is he.” I asked quietly.

“Fever’s gone, the swelling in his abdomen is almost completely gone, and he’s wake. Seems like he’s going to be just fine.” Hershel smiled.

“Dad, everyone is just pulling up now.” I said gently and Dad nodded and stood up, following me out of the room.

“Any luck?” I asked as Daryl threw the kick stand down on his bike and he shook his head.

“How’s Carl?” He asked as Dad went to tell the rest of the group what was happening.

“Good. It got close last night, but they were able to get the bullet out.” I said crossing my arms and blinking back tears.

“And you? Ya look like death warmed over, girl.” Daryl teased and I thought I saw a trace of a smile on his face.

“I’m okay. Dad and I are the same blood type as Carl so we gave a lot last night and none of us have really slept.” I explained. He grunted and turned to walk over to the rest of the group and I followed close behind.

Carol came up and hugged me, “I’m so glad he’s going to be okay. We were so worried.” She said.

“Thank you so much. It was a long, scary night, but he’s gonna be fine.” I confessed pulling out of the hug.

“What exactly happened?” Dale asked.

“Hunting accident. That’s all- just a stupid accident.” Dad explained. Then he launched into the full story of what happened.

As soon as everyone had a minute to settle down Hershel called us all over to one of the largest oak trees on the edge of the property to have a funeral for Otis. Since we couldn’t bury his body we all took turns stacking rocks on top of the area that would have been his grave. The whole ceremony was peaceful and beautiful. Hershel had put on his Sunday best and was performing a small service from his Bible. I had never been to church before, but I respectfully followed everyone else's lead and tried to participate. 

“Blessed be God, Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Praise be to Him for the gift of our brother, Otis. For his span of years, for his abundance of character; Otis, who gave his life to save a child’s, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you God for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in grace.” Hershel prayed, “Shane, will you speak for Otis?” He asked.

I looked over and saw that Shane looked a shade of grey and he stammered out, “I’m...I’m not good at this...I’m sorry.”

“Please, you were the last one with him. You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning.” Patricia begged through her tears. I felt a few of my own tears escape; even though I didn’t know him, he saved my brother’s life and it broke my heart to see his family so hurt. Dad wrapped an arm around me and rubbed my shoulder.

“We were about done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limpin’. It was bad. Ankle all swollen up. ‘We gotta save the boy,’ see that’s what he said. He gave me his backpack, he shoved me ahead. ‘Run,’ he said. He said, ‘I’ll take the rear. I’ll cover you.’ And when I looked back…” Shane trailed off then he limped forward towards the wheelbarrow full of rocks, “If not for Otis, I’d never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl, too. It was Otis. He saved us both. If any death ever had meaning, it was his.” He said placing a stone on the top.

……….

A few hours after the funeral Daryl, Dad, Hershel, Andrea, Shane, and I were gathered around the hood of one of the cars with maps spread out, trying to find the best way to look for Sophia.

“How long as this girl been missing?” Hershel asked.

“This will be day three.” Dad said. Growing up in law enforcement, I knew that if you didn’t find a missing child within the first 72 hours of them going missing the chances of finding them and of finding them alive were slim and I couldn’t help but worry that having walkers around cut that time in half, but I tried to keep my hopes up.

Maggie walked up with a large paper and unrolled it on the hood, “County Survey map, shows terrain and elevation.”

“This is perfect, we can finally get this thing organized. We’ll grid the whole area, start searching in teams.” Dad explained.

“Not you. Not today. You gave three units of blood yesterday. You wouldn’t be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out. And your ankle, push it now and you’ll be laid up for a month, no good to anybody.” Hershel scowled Dad and Shane before turning to me, “You shouldn’t be out there either.”

“I only gave one unit and we can’t be down three people right now. I’ll be fine.” I said.

“Ya sure? Ya don’t look so hot and I’ve seen ya push yourself too much ‘fore.” Daryl swarned.

“I’m fine.” I promised even though I didn’t feel fine.

“I’m gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there.” Daryl said.

“I can still be useful, drive up the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back.” Shane suggested.

“Alright, tomorrow we’ll start doing this right.” Dad said.

“That means we can’t have our people out there with just knifes. They need the gun training we’ve been promising them.” Shane said.

“I prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We’ve managed so far without turning this into an armed camp.” Hershel said. 

“All due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here…” Shane said.

“Look, we’re guest here. This is your property. And we  _ will _ respect that.” Dad said and he pulled his gun out of his holster and put it on the hood of the car. I reached around me and pulled mine out of the back of my jeans and set it down. I would feel safer with my gun, but I still hand my knife strapped to my hip and my bow and quiver full of arrows so I wasn’t too upset. Shane pulled his gun out last and set it on the hood as well.

“First things first: set up camp, find Sophia.” Dad explained.

“You know I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody’s gotta. What happens if we find her and she’s bit? I think we should all be clear on how we’re gonna handle that.” Shane said.

Dad looked down for a moment, “You do what has to be done.”

“And her mother? What do you tell her?” Maggie asked.

“The truth.” Andrea said.

“I’ll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one carries till we’re at the practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale’s got experience, so does JoJo if it’s okay with Rick.” Shane said.

“Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun.” Dad explained and Hershel nodded, “Thank you.”

“I should make a run into town. There’s a pharmacy a mile up the road. I’ve done it before.”

“You should take Glenn with you. He’s our go-to-town expert.” I suggested. “I’m sure you don’t need help, but an extra pair of hands can’t hurt.”

“Alright. Thanks, JoJo.” She said and she walked over to where Lori and Glenn were setting up tents, leaving me, Dad, and Hershel at the car.

“Hershel, my best friend used to live on a ranch and I would help her out sometimes. I’m sure I could help with the animals and other chores while Maggie’s out.” I offered.

“Thank you very much, Georgia. You can go ask Beth and Patricia what they need help with. Be sure to take it easy.” He said. I looked over at Dad who smiled at me before I went inside.

I walked into the kitchen and saw both the women I was looking for in the kitchen discussing today’s tasks.

“Hey Beth, Patricia. Maggie’s going on a run to the pharmacy and I have some experience working on a farm. Did you need any help today?” I asked.

“Thank you so much for offering. That would be wonderful. If you’d like you can go gather the eggs in the chicken coop and bring them here then get some water for the cattle and horses. Let me know if you need help finding the well.” Patricia said.

I nodded and grabbed a basket that was on the kitchen table and tied my hair up in a top knot before walking towards the barn.

“Hey JoJo. What are you doing?” Maggie said running up and standing between me and the bar.

“Um, I was going to gather the kitchen eggs.” I answered. 

“We don’t actually use this barn, the chicken coop and all the animals are by the stables over there. Daddy doesn’t like anyone going in that barn, it as a lot of dangerous farming equipment.” Maggie said.

“Oh, okay. Thank you. By the way, where is the water well?” I asked.

“It’s just out in that field. I gave Dale all the directions earlier. I gotta go saddle up and help that poor city boy figure out how to ride a horse.” Maggie said and she ran off towards the stables. I stood frozen for a minute looking at the barn for a minute and I had a very ominous feeling settle in me.

I followed Maggie over to the stables and went to the left of it where the chicken coop was and stooped under the short door, there were at least fifteen chickens in the coop and I began to search through every nest and in the end had about twenty eggs in my basket. I ducked back out of the door started walking towards the camp and set my basket of eggs down on the front steps of the porch where I saw my dad sitting and Daryl walking in our direction.

“Daryl, you sure you’re alright on your own?” Dad asked and I went and took a seat next to him on the stairs.

“I’m better on my own. I’ll be back before dark.” Daryl promised and he kept walking.

“Be safe,” I yelled out and he waved off my request.

“Hey, we have a base now. We can get this search properly organized now.” Dad said.

“Ya got a point or are we just chattin’?” Daryl angrily asked turning to look at us. I stood up and grabbed the basket and brought it inside. I smiled at Patricia as I set them down on the table.

“I’m going to check on Carl before I take care of the water. I’ll just be a minute.” I said and Patricia nodded. I walked into Carl’s room and sast down next to him right as he started to stir.

“Hey, Carl. How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Okay. Where’s Sophia? Is she okay?” He asked quietly.

I froze up at the question, not sure of how to answer, “You should get some sleep.” 

“Okay.” He muttered before drifting off. I stayed in his room for another moment before going outside. I walked back over to the stable to grabbed some buckets for the water and say Glenn with a pair of binoculars staring at something.

“Hello, farmer’s daughter.” Glenn said in a sing song voice.

“Glenn!” I shirked and he jumped up in the air and whirled around.

“I wasn’t doing anything!!” He yelled.

“What weren’t you doing?” Lori asked as she walked over.

“Nothing.” We said at the same time. Lori looked us and shook her head before reaching into her back pocket.

“Here’s your list.” She handed Glenn the paper. “And um...there’s one other item. I wrote it down separately. It’s personal, if we could be really discreet about it.” Lori said.

I threw my hands up, “I don’t want to know.” I said and I went to go find Dale to help me with the wells.

“Hey Dale.” I said walking over to him once I spotted him. He and T-Dog were walking to a field with a wheelbarrow full of buckets, “Mind if I tag along? I’m suppose to get water for the animals.”

“Well, we’re going to the first well that supplies the house, but we’ll show you were the other one is. Would you give us a hand?” Dale asked.

“Sure.” I said as I walked beside the two men. We got the the well and T-Dog set the wheelbarrow down and Dale set up the bucket so I walked over to the pump and started pushing up and down.

“Say, man, you say there’s a snowball's chance we’ll find that girl?” T-Dog asked.

“For the first time in my life, I’m betting on the snowball.” Dale said.

“Yeah. Me too.” T-Dog said. “Do whatever we have to, I don’t care if I have to comb the woods like Rambo or fetch a pail of water. Everyone kicks in, does there part.”

I laughed a little as I listened to T-Dog then I noticed Dale standing on the edge of the well, looking in. I bent down and grabbed the ladle out of the bucket and went to take a sip of water. Suddenly Dale ran over and knocked the ladle out of my hand and I looked at him in shock.

“I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.” He warned, “JoJo, go back and grab the others.” 

I ran over to the camp and rounded up Andrea, Glenn, Lori, Shane, and Maggie and we all gathered around the well and looked in at the walker who was walking around, growling at the bottom of it. It’s skin was bloated and wrinkled and from being in the water for so long.

“How long you think it’s been down there?” I wondered.

“Long enough to grow gills.” Andrea said.

“We can’t leave it in there. God knows what it’s doing to the water.” Lori said.

“We got to it out.” Shane said.

“Easy, put a bullet in it’s head. I’ll get a rope.” T-Dog said.

“Wow! Wow! No!” Maggie said.

“Why not? It’s a good plan.” Glenn said.

“No, it’s a terrible plan!” I said.

“I’m with Maggie and Georgia, if that thing hasn’t contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finished the job.” Andrea said and I rolled my eyes when she used my full name. It took everything I had in me to not turn around and slap her.

“They’re right. We can’t risk it.” Shane said.

“So it has to come out alive?” T-Dog asked.

“Well...so to speak.” I pointed out since the walker was technically already dead.

“So how do we do that?” Glenn asked.

……….

“I stand corrected. The first plan was fine,  _ this _ is a terrible plan!” I cried out as Dale and T-Dog tied a canned ham to a string and lowered it into the well.

“He’s not going for it.” Dale said after a minute.

“Maybe ‘cause a canned ham don’t kick and scream when you try to eat it.” T-Dog guessed.

“He’s right. There’s a reason the dead didn’t come back to life and start raiding our cupboards.” Lori said.

“We need life bait.” Andrea said looking at Glenn.

“What! No! What exactly is the plan? You want to lower Glenn into the well and then what? You still can’t get him out. Wet skin is that wet it easier to peel and break and that thing is decomposing! You try and get it out of the well it will bleed into the water!” I yelled at her.

“No one asked you!” Andrea snapped.

I looked over at Glenn and saw that he wasn’t protesting and stormed away. I wasn’t going to watch him die over a plan that wouldn’t work if he’s not even going to try and stop tem from using him as bait. I grabbed my buckets as I left and went to the other clean well further out and filled it then marched to the stables and gave the horses and cattle water. I screamed and threw my bucket across the stable when I was done and slumped to the floor feeling defeated.

Maggie ran through the stable in tears a minute later and I lifted my head off the floor, a second later Glenn followed after her.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Exactly what you said would happen. We had to kill the half that made it to the surface. I don’t think she’s ever had to deal with that.” He said then he continued running after her. I picked myself up off the ground and brushed the hay off of me before walking back to our base. On the way over I passed a flower garden outside of the farm house and thought it might be nice to brighten Carl’s room up with, I saw Patricia working in the vegetable garden and walked up to her.

“Hey Patricia. Mind if I cut some of these flowers and put them in Carl’s room?” I asked.

“Of course you can.” She said, “The garden shed is just over there for some scissors and you can use the basket for earlier to hold them.”

I went over to the front porch and found the egg basket from earlier then went to the gardening shed and found some sheers before I knelt down in a bed of flowers and sighed a breath of relief. It felt good to be kneeling in the dirt surrounded by the beautiful things in nature. I got to work cutting a few different types of flowers I thought would look nice and loading them into my basket while humming, I wasn’t must of a singer, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love music and once I was finished I stood up and brushed the dirt off of my jeans before going into the kitchen and filling a glass with water. I walked into Carl’s room and saw Dad and Lori sitting with him and I immediately could tell I was interrupting something.

“What are those for?” Lori asked.

“I got them in the garden for Carl.” I said setting the makeshift vase on the nightstand.

“That’s very sweet of you JoJo. You wanna sit with us for a bit?” Dad asked.

“No, that’s alright. Everyone should be back soon, I’ll see if any of them need help.” I said walking out. As I walked out I heard the sound of hooves and looked down the road to see Maggie and Glenn on horseback and Glenn was wearing a stupid smile on his face.. They rode up to the front of the house and Maggie climbed off with several bags in er hand from the drug store.

“I’ll put the horse away. Glenn why don’t you help me?” I asked and he nodded still looking lost in a dream. We stood on the inside of the horses so we could talk.

“I win.” He said simply.

“Win what?” I asked.

“Win at getting the person I like first. Maggie and I had sex at the pharmacy.” Glenn bragged and I stopped dead in my track.

“What?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He said dreamily.

“You’ve got it so bad.” I laughed as I led the horse I was leading into the stable, “Go, go to your new woman. I’ll finish up here.” I said and Glenn smiled and shot off like a rocket back to the house and I laughed. 

I minute later I heard footsteps enter the barn, “Did you forget something or did she kick to you the curb already?” 

“What?” A voice that was not Glenn’s asked and I turned around as Daryl came over to me and just looked at me for a moment before holding up a single beautiful flower.

“What this?” I asked taking the flower from his hand.

“It’s a cherokee rose. I know that girls like pretty crap and I thought you might like it. Ya know, since it’s pretty...and you’re pretty” He said kicking the ground and looking anywhere, but at me. I smiled and tucked the flower behind my ear before getting up on my toes and giving him a kiss on the cheek. As I pulled away I saw his eyes were wide and his cheeks were stained red. Then he shook his head and whipped the kiss away and grumbled as he walked away. I took that as a victory for me.


	10. Chupacabra

We had been at the farm for a little over three days now, Carl was getting stronger, and there was still no sign of Sophia, but Hershel gave me the all clear to help with the search. I woke up early the next morning and smiled when I saw the flower Daryl had given me laying next to my pillow where I had set it last night. I quickly pulled my hair into two braids and tucked the flower behind my ear before getting up and getting ready for the day.

“Morning, Georgia.” I heard Lori call as I stepped out of the tent and saw her and Carol hanging laundry up. Lori looked exhausted and a little pale.

“Morning. Do y’all need any help.” I asked.

“No, I think we’re okay, why don’t you go ask your dad if he needs you for anything today.” She said and I nodded and started walking away. 

“Wait!” Carol called and I turned around, “Your mom and I are planning on cooking dinner tonight for Hershel and his family. Would you like to help?” She asked.

I ignored the fact that she had called Lori my mom and smiled, “I’m not much of a cook, but if Dad doesn’t need me for anything, I’d be happy to help.”

I walked over to the truck which had become our official meeting place for the search party. Dad, Shane, Andrea, T-Dog, and Daryl were already there when I arrived and Dad was giving instructions. I noticed Daryl staring at the flower in my hair and blushed, but now was not the time for flirting; we needed to find Sophia.

“Alright, everyone is getting a new search grid today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further East than we’ve been so far.” Dad explained.

“I’d like to help.” A voice said and I turned around to see Jim who was indirectly related to the Greenes and who I didn’t know as well as I knew the rest of the family, “I know the area pretty well and stuff.”

“Hershel’s okay with this?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, he said I should ask you.” Jim said trying to play it cool. I knew he was lying, he was trying to hard to play it off and I knew Hershel would never be okay with this.

“Alright. Thanks.” Dad said accepting the help and I made a face of disbelief knowing that he fell for that.

“Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. ANyone coulda been holed up in that farmhouse.” Shane grumbled.

“Anybody includes her.” I pointed out.

“Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay high.” Daryl explained holding his hand up about midway up his chest.

“Maybe we’ll pick up her trail again.” Dad said.

“No maybe about it.. I’m gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, get a bird’s eye view of the whole grid. If she’s up there I’ll spot her.” Daryl explained pointing at the map.

“Good idea. Maybe you’ll see you chupacabra up there, too.” T-Dog teased and I bit my lip to keep from smiling.

“Chupacabra?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, our first night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of the time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra.” I explained rolling the r sound when I said the creatures name.

Jimmy laughed next to me, “What you braying at, jackass?” Daryl snapped at him.

“So, you believe in a blood sucking dog?” Dad asked.

“Do you believe in dead people walking around?” Daryl retorted.

Dale came over and set down the guns and everyone who was allowed to carry started loading up until Jimmy reached for one.

“Wow. You ever fire one before?” Dad asked grabbing the boy’s wrist.

“No but if I’m going out, I want one.” He said.

“Yeah, and people in Hell want slurpees.” Daryl said throwing his crossbow over his shoulder and walking away.

“Alright, Andrea, T-Dog you two take this section, JoJo and Jimmy you two take this area and Shane and I’ll take the middle. Be back before dark.” Dad said I groaned internally at having to spend a day with the unarmed new guy. I walked back to the tent to grab my bow and Dad caught up with me.

“JoJo, you know I’m not comfortable sending you out there by yourself.” He explained.

“So sending me with a guy we barely know who has no weapon is your answer?” I sassed.

Dad sighed, “Just for today. Please. We need to find this little girl.” He begged and I nodded.

……….

 

“So, how do you know how to do all this stuff?” Jimmy asked.

“Know about what?” I asked.

“How to shoot, how to find your way around the woods, how to be part of an organized search?” He clarified.

“Well, the shooting and search party is from my dad, Rick, he was the sheriff of our home town before the world went to Hell. And as for the finding my way around the woods, I did a bit of camping with my dad and brother, but Daryl taught me a bit when this first started.” I said as I stopped and tied a green sloth to a tree.

“What’s that for?” He asked.

I gave an exasperated sigh, “So we can find our way back and so the other groups know that this is our area to search and that they have wandered out there trail.”

We walked a little further, until we heard groaning and we froze. I slowly drew an arrow out of my quiver and notched before slowly turning around and seeing a walker slowly coming towards us. I shot it clean through its right eye and Jimmy cried out.

“What are you doing?” He yelled.

“What the Hell are you talking about. That bastard was going to try and bite us. What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“He was sick and you killed him.” Jimmy cried.

“What are you talking about. They’re not sick. They’re dead.” I explained and he looked at me like I was stupid. I decided to let the topic drop and we kept walking, hoping we wouldn’t run into any more walkers.

We reached the end of our search area before the sun was at its highest point in the sky without running into any more trouble and two hours later we were back at the camp. As soon as I stepped out of the woods Glenn grabbed my arm and dragged me to a secluded area.

“Lori’s pregnant.” He blurted out.

I froze in shock and my jaw dropped, “I’m sorry what?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure. She hasn’t told me, but she had me pick up pregnancy tests yesterday.” Glenn explained.

“Oh my God.” I whispered and Dad and Shane walked out of the forest a minute later, “Oh my God!”

“What?” Glenn asked.

“I’m eighteen my stepmom is pregnant, and I’m willing to place money on my dad not being the baby’s dad.” I exclaimed as quietly as I could.

“...I’ll take that bet.” He said.

“Stop talking.” I snapped, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s fine, I shouldn’t have made a joke when you’re upset. Also Lori asked me not to tell anyone so you can’t say anything.” Glenn confessed.

“You are terrible at keeping secrets.” I smiled.

“JoJo. Your dad and my dad want to talk to you. They’re inside.” Beth quietly said walking up to us. I nodded and followed her to the farm house.

I walked into the office and saw a very angry Hershel and a not thrilled Dad looking at me, “I don’t know what you heard, but whatever it is Glenn did it.” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Did you know Daryl took a horse?” Hershel asked.

“He mentioned it to the group.” I answered.

“Did you know that he took it without permission?”

“...No. I was under the impression that you knew.” 

“Hm, and you went out with Jimmy, yes?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And did you know that he didn’t have permission to leave?”

“No, sir. But we did ask him and he did say that you not only gave him permission, but encouraged him. He’s fine.” I assured them.

“Did anything happen while you were out?” Dad asked and I looked down for a minute, “JoJo.” He prompted.

“We ran into one walker, but I shot it down. Jim was very upset, he said it was sick and not dead.” I explained.

“Thank you Miss. Georgia. That’s all. Why don’t you see if Beth or Maggie need help with anything.” Hershel suggested. I nodded and nearly bolted out of the room.

I walked into the livingroom at the back of the house and saw Carl and Beth sitting on the floor around the coffee table.

“What are y’all up to?” I asked leaning on the doorframe. 

“Making friendship bracelets, Want to make one?” Carl asked. I went and sat down next him and started picking out my colors.

“Who are you making yours for?” I asked.

“It’s for Sophia when we find her.” He said confidently. “Who are you making yours for?”

“I don’t know yet.” I answered. That was a lie, I was probably going to force Daryl to wear it when he gets back.

About half way through making our bracelets Glenn and Maggie came in and joined us in making bracelets which they swapped with each other. Maggie and I spent most of the time talking to each other about horseback riding and high school while Glenn and Carl talked about comic books and Beth remained strangely quiet. Lori, Carol, and Patricia came in later in the day and made Carl go back to sleep and made me and Beth and I went to help with dinner.

I was sitting down peeling potatoes when Hershel walked in.

“Thank you, Patricia, for letting us into your home.” Lori said not realizing Hershel had walked in.

“What’s this?” He asked.

“Lori and Carol are cooking dinner for us tonight.” Maggie answered as she walked into the kitchen.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of it.” he commented.

“Don’t worry. We’re not too bad of cooks.” Carol joked, but Hershel didn’t smile.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal.” Maggie said.

“May I speak to you for a second.” Hershel motioned for Maggie to follow him

“I’m starting to think Hershel doesn’t want us here.” I commented.

“Nonsense. He’s just very protective.” Patricia waved off.

……….

The friendship bracelet was burning a hole in my pocket as I walked around camp calling everyone for dinner and I noticed that Daryl wasn’t back yet. Technically the sun wasn’t down yet so I didn’t need to worry about anything yet.

“Walker!” Andrea called from the top of the RV and everyone outside turned to look at the treeline.

“Just the one?” I asked.

“I bet I can nail it from here.” Trigger happy Andrea said picking up the rifle next to her.

“No!” I called not wanting to draw more out.

“Andrea don’t shoot.” Dad ordered as he ran out into the field.

Dad and Shane ran towards the walker in the distance and suddenly I saw a crossbow hanging from it’s arm and realized that it was Daryl. I took off running towards him to prevent Dad or Shane from shooting him and as I ran up I saw that he was in really bad shape. The sleeves of his shirt had been ripped off and what was left was soaked in blood, his was drenched in sweat, and he was wearing a necklace with walker ears on it.

“That’s the third time you’ve pointed that thing at my head. You gonna pull the trigger or what?” Daryl asked sarcastically looking at Dad.

A gunshot rang through the air and suddenly there was a sharp pain in my left shoulder and I dropped to my knees.

“No!” Dad yelled.

I looked up and saw that Daryl had been knocked down as well before Shane went to help him up and Dad lifted me into his arms.

“I was kidding!” I heard Daryl yell out as Dad over me over to the house.

“What happened?” Hershel asked as everyone came out of the house.

“If I had to take a wild guess I’d say that dumb bitch Andrea fucking shot me!” I yelled out hoping she heard me. 

Dad ran up the stairs followed by Lori and Shane helping Daryl. Hershel led us up the stairs and they laid me down on the bed, I was still in shock luckily so I didn’t really feel anything. Hershel ripped my shirt open and tenderly touched the wound. I screamed and cried as he examined my injured shoulder.

“It went through clean. Just needs stitches and to be wrapped. Hold her down.” Hershel instructed. I looked around and saw Dad hold my shoulder down and Glenn and Dale hold my legs. I whimpered and thrashed as the needle poked into my skin over and over again and once I thought the pain was finally over they rolled me onto my back to stitch the back of the wound and I blackout. 

When I opened my eyes again it was dark outside and Dad was asleep in the chair next to me. I tried to reach over to poke his arm and wake him up, but I forgot that my shoulder had a bullet hole in it and I hissed in pain which seemed to wake him up.

“Hey, Peaches, hey, How are you? Do you need anything?” He asked kneeling down next to me and stroking my hair.

“You, Carl, and I match.” I said hoarsely.

“Yeah, we do, don’t we.” He whispered.

“Is Daryl okay? Did he get shot too?” I asked.

“He got pretty beat up out there, he’s in the next room. But the bullet only grazed him.” Dad answered.

“Sophia?” I asked and Dad shook his head.

“Do you want me to let everyone know you’re awake? Everyone wants to see you. Glenn, Maggie, Beth, Carl, Lori...Daryl although Hershel says he has to heal some first.” Dad listed.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll follow the doctor's orders on that.” I joked.

“What’s going on with you two? You can tell me.” He said grabbing my hand.

“I don’t know. I know you and Lori aren’t fans of me hanging out with him, but he’s nice to me and...I don’t know.” I muttered.

Dad smiled, “Alright. Just want you to know you can talk to me about these things.”

“I think I’m gonna miss Lori and Carol’s dinner.” I smiled.

“I think everyone will understand. I’ll go tell everyone you’re awake and send Lori in to keep you company.”

“Okay. I love you, Daddy.” I whispered.

“I love you too, Peaches.” He brushed my hair out of my face before standing up and walking out of the room.

After about fifteen minutes I drifted off to sleep and when I woke back up, an hour later according to the clock in the room, no one was in the room except me. I was incredibly hungry and thirsty and a bullet in my arm didn’t mean I couldn’t walk so I slowly pushed myself up on the bed using my good arm and went for a walk. I saw that the door to the right of me was open and remembered that my dad said that Daryl was in there; I poked my head in before finding food and gasped at what I saw.

Daryl had the sheet around his waist which allowed me to see his back which was littered with scars both big and small, old and new, wide and narrow and I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from making noise. There was an untouched plate of food on the bedside table meaning he must still be asleep. I reached into my jean pocket and pulled out the bracelet before smiling and quietly rounding the bed where his right arm was conveniently dangling. I slipped the bracelet on and tied a knot so it wouldn’t fall off then kissed his forehead which was wrapped in gauze.

“Watch it I got stitches.” He muttered tiredly, swatting at me in his sleep.

“Goodnight, Daryl.” I whispered sweetly before setting off on my original mission to find food.


	11. Chapter 11

From now on I shall be called Rapunzel. Dad caught me out of bed the moment I stepped into the kitchen and he freaked out, scooping me up and running me back into the room, tucking me into bed before going back into the kitchen to grab me some food. That was three hours ago and everyone in the farm house was starting to go to sleep. There was a knock on the door and I looked over to see Carl poke his head in, I noticed that he had dad’s sheriff hat on.

“Hey! What are you doing up? The apocalypse doesn’t mean there’s no bedtime.” I joked.

Carl scrambled up onto the bed, “You sound like Mom.” 

“Ew! That makes me sound old.” I joked and Carl laughed, “So, are you, Dad, and I going to join the Bullet-Hole-Grimes Club.”

“Does it hurt?” Carl asked.

“Not as bad as yours does. Are you staying here tonight?” I asked.

“No. Hershel says I’m okay to stay in the tent, but I think Dad is going to sleep in here. He told Mom he wasn’t, but I don’t believe him.” Carl explained.

“Yeah, I don’t either. Now, give me a hug.” I demanded and Carl carefully gave me a side hug, “Good night, little man.”

“Night, JoJo.” He whispered before he climbed off the bed and walked out of the room. I leaned over and turned off the bedside light before falling asleep.

……….

“Morning, Peaches.” Dad whispered, gently waking me up.

“Good morning.” I answered rubbing my eyes before remembering that I was shot in the shoulder and groaned. 

“Take it easy JoJo. I’m going to go work on laying out today’s grid. I’ll be back later.” My dad said.

“You’re continuing the search since Daryl got hurt, lost a horse, Jimmy lied about being allowed to go out, and I got shot!” I said.

“I know, but that little girl is still missing and Daryl found her doll in the river.” Dad explained.

I sighed, “Okay, just be careful and keep me posted.” 

He stood up and walked out of the room as Glenn walked in.

“Good morning. I bring peaches.” Glenn said, tossing me a peach.

“Morning Glenn.” I said sitting up in bed, “What’s up? You look like you have something on your mind.”

“Everything’s fine!” He said too quickly.

“Glenn, I know you are lying, you suck at lying. You can’t even play poker because it’s too much like lying.” I said.

“Hershelhasasecretbarnfullofwalkers.” Glenn spat out.

“I’m sorry?”

“The barn we aren’t suppose to go into, it’s not about the dangerous farming equipment, there are walkers in the barn!” Glenn whispered, “What do we do?”

I threw the blankets off of me and started getting out of bed, “We have to tell my dad. He’s planning the search for Sophia, we might still catch him.”

“No! We can’t!” He argued shoving me back down onto the mattress.

“What!? There’s a barn full of walkers and you just want to sit around with that information and do nothing?” I snapped.

“Hershel thinks they’re sick, that he can save them. I promised Maggie I wouldn’t tell anyone and you know how bad I am about lying. I had to spill to someone.” He explained.

“So, out of everyone in our group, you chose Sheriff Grimes kid?” I questioned.

“I knew I could trust you to keep this a secret until we figure out what to do.” He said.

“Anything else you would like to share?” I snapped.

“Lori still hasn’t told your dad about the baby.” Glenn said and I rolled my eyes.

“This is ridiculous! I’m going out there!” I said throwing the blanket off and not even bothering to put my shoes on before stomping outside as Glenn called after me. I walked straight to the campsite we had set up and overheard the adults arguing about a gun and shooting lessons

“He wanted to learn how to shoot. He asked me to teach him.” I heard Shane say as I walked into the circle they had formed.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“What are you doing out here!?” Dad yelled.

“I need to talk to you and Lori, but more importantly, what’s this about a gun?” I reemphasized.

Lori walked over and grabbed my arm, “Come on. Let’s go talk.”  We walked back to the farm house in silence and Lori closed the door as soon as we were in the room, “Glenn told you.”

“Yeah. He also said that you haven’t told Dad and we’ve placed bets on who’s baby it is.” I sassed crossing my arms as best as I could without causing my injury to throb more than it already was.

Lori buried her face in her hands for a moment and then I noticed that her shoulders were shaking.

“Lori?” i asked gently.

“Georgia, I messed up. I know I messed up. But I also know, that you are aware that your father and I didn’t have the best marriage before this. You have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this.” She begged.

“Why would I keep this from Dad? He deserves to know. And as much as I hate him, since Shane is most likely the father you should probably tell him, too.” I argued.

“What are you talking about? Why would you accuse me of being with Shane?” She asked.

“Because you two were sleeping together since the apocalypse started to the moment Dad came back. It was pretty obvious.” I explained.

“Look, I thought your dad was dead and I felt like a part of me died with him. I just wanted to feel something again, anything.” She tried to justify.

“Oh and Carl and I weren’t in pain, feeling like we had died inside over leaving Dad behind in a hospital full of walkers?” I sassed.

“Alright, how about this? You let me handle telling your dad and you don’t tell anyone, I’ll lay off your relationship with Daryl and get your dad to be okay with it as well.” She suggested.

I thought for a minute, “Daryl and I aren’t a forsure thing, this baby is.”

“...No it’s not.” Lori confessed and my eyes widened as she lowered hers.

“...You’re getting rid of it?” I whispered.

“I don’t know yet and I need to figure things out. And I need you to keep this a secret so that I can get my head straight.” She said. I didn’t even realize that I had started crying until my shoulders start heaving causing pain to shoot through my arm. Lori led me to sit on the bed and wrapped me in a hug before standing and walking out of the room.

……….

The next visitors were Hershel and Maggie, coming to check my stitches and change my bandages.

“Hey Maggie. Hello Hershel. How are you?” I asked.

“Great, your dad and Shane gave a shooting lesson today, I went down for a bit. Your brothers pretty good.” Maggie said sitting down next to me.

“He better be, he’s been watching me and dad since the moment he could focus his eyes.” I smiled.

“Well, Miss.Georgia, your wound is healing nicely. A few days and you should be good to go, but you’ll need to rest your shoulder still. No strenuous lifting and no archery.” Hershel instructed.

“Yes, Doctor Greene.” I said.

“Your brothers almost healed as well. I imagine you’ll be on your way soon. Fort Benning, I hear.” He said.

I looked up at him in shock, no one had mentioned leaving the farm anytime soon. I looked over at Maggie who was staring at her dad in shock.

“Daddy, can’t we talk about this.” She begged.

“I need to check on my other patient.” He said standing up and walking out of the room.

Maggie and I sat in silence for a moment, “So...you know about the barn?” She asked.

“Yeah, little heads up, I know you and Glenn have something going on, but don’t trust him with your secrets. He’s a terrible liar.” I said and she laughed, “I’m not going to tell anyone, yet. But I make no promises about the others.”

“I understand. Thank you.” She said and I nodded, “Daddy doesn’t really have another patient, just so you know. Daryl threw a fit so he’s letting him sleep in his own tent outside as long as he takes it easy. I saw him walking around earlier, wearing the bracelet you made him.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“I put it on last night when I snuck out of bed. He was pretty out of it and he got all grumpy when I gave him a kiss on the forehead.” I confessed.

“Why did you get out of bed?” She asked.

“I was hungry! I’m still hungry!” I said. She grabbed my good arm and helped me out of bed.

“Come on, I’ll help smuggle you into the kitchen.” She said and we quietly walked across the hall and I sat down at the kitchen table while Maggie brought left overs from last night’s feast to the table. We stayed and talked for a while until she had to go back to her chores so I went back to my room where Dad was waiting in the chair next to the bed.

“How much do you know?” He asked leaning forward in the chair.

I froze, not sure if he was talking about the baby, the barn, or us leaving the farm, “How much do I know about what?” I asked slowly.

“About Hershel wanting us to leave the farm. What else would I be talking about?” He explained.

“Oh, that, he just briefly mentioned it too me. Something about us being on our way to Fort Benning in a few days.” I said.

“Carl’s barely on his feet, T-Dogs still healing, you and Daryl hurt, Sophia still missing. We’re in no shape to move. We might not have a choice in leaving, but I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure, you, your brother, and Lori are safe.” He promised.

“Hershel says I can get my stitches out in two days, then one more day of rest. After that I need to take it easy, no heavy lifting, no using my bow, but I’ll be okay.” I relayed.

“Good. I’m glad you’ll be okay. We’ll have you back to state champion status in no time.” He said. “We’re cooking outside. I know you just had a snack, but do you want to come sit with everyone?”

“Yes! I’m going crazy in here!” I said.

We walked outside and I sat down in the camping chair next to Glenn, “Maggie knows I know about the barn.”

“Dale knows about the barn and the pregnancy.”

I groaned, “You are the worst, Rhee.”

“Shut up, Grimes.” He snapped.

“Okay so the pregnancy is Lori, Dale, you, and me and the barn is Maggie, Dale, you, and me.” I summarized not adding the part about leaving the farm which was Hershel, Maggie, Dad, and I.

“Yes.” He confirmed.

I shook my head, “I feel like I’m in high school.” 

“Same. Oh, you, Maggie, and I are the only ones who knew that Maggie and I slept together and I’d like to keep it that way.” He said.

Lori walked over to us and looked between us for a moment, “I’m sorry for putting you in this position. Glenn, I have a favor to ask, can you come with me?” She asked and Glenn followed her off to the other side of camp and Daryl came and sat in empty chair.

“Nice to see you up and about.” I said.

He grunted, “Glad yer alright.”

I smiled and sat back, closing my eyes, “What is this crap?” He suddenly asked. I cracked my eyes open and saw that he was holding out his wrist that had the bracelet on it.

“It’s called a friendship bracelet. I made one with Maggie, Glenn, and Carl yesterday and decided to give it to you as a thank you for the flower. I tried to make it look as manly as possible.” I explained, he looked down at the bracelet in confusion, “You don’t have to keep it if you don’t want to.” He nodded then stood up and walked away.

……….

Glenn and Maggie went on a run together to grab something for Lori and had just come back, at the same time Shane and Andrea came back from their run up to the housing development a few miles away to look for Sophia and Shane and Dale were having a fight on the other side of camp that I could vaguely hear. Dad had been walking in the fields with Lori when he came storming back over to the tents, but before he went in he turned and looked at me.

“How long have you known?” He asked.

“About what?” I asked, but I was fairly certain I knew what he was talking about.

“You know what.” He snapped.

“The baby. I’ve known for a day or so.” I confessed.

He nodded, “And the pills?”

I scrunched my face in confusion, “I don’t know anything about pills.”

For the rest of the day there was obvious tension in the air and even the next morning as we all sat down to breakfast outside around the fire I could see Andrea and Shane shooting each other looks and when he wasn’t looking at Andrea, Shane was shooting daggers at Dale, Maggie glaring at Glenn, and Lori and Dad refusing to look at each other. So far Carol, Daryl, and I were the calmest, most collected people in the group today.

Suddenly Glenn stood up, “Um...guys...so...the barn is full of walkers.”

 

I dropped my head into my hands as everyone stared at him in silence and I waited for it to sink in and for everyone to lose it. We all went over to the barn and just stared at the outside of the building, hearing the moans and growls inside.

“Y’all can’t tell me we’re just going to be okay with this. I realise we’re on Hershel farm and we have to do as he says, but it’s just stupid to keep these things alive.” I said breaking the silence.

“JoJo’s right.” Dad agreed.

“This is our life's at stake!” Shane shouted.

“Lower your voices!” Glenn warned.

“We can’t just sweep this under the rug.” Andrea said and as much as I hated her and the fact that she hadn’t said sorry for shooting me, but had apologized profusely to Daryl, I agreed with her.

“It ain’t right. Not rometly.” Shane said pacing, “Okay, we either got to go in there, we’ve got to make things right or we got to go. Now, we’ve been talking about Fort Benning for a long time.” 

“Hershel expecting us to leave for there in a few days. I don’t agree with it, but I think everyone deserves a chance to know.” I confessed.

“We can’t!” Dad said

“My daughter is still out there1” Carol said.

“Okay, I think it is time we all start to just consider the other possibility.” Shane said.

“No!” I yelled.

“We are not leaving Sophia behind!” Daryl snapped, “I’m close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago.” 

“You found her doll, Daryl. That’s what you did. You found a doll.” Shane argued.

“You don’t know what the Hell yer talkin’ about?” Daryl yelled and he started to lunge for Shane, so I stepped in the way and blocked him, throwing my arms up ten immediately grabbing my injured shoulder and whimpering in pain.

“Wow, wow, you okay, sunshine.” Daryl said quiety, reaching for me and I smiled through the pain as I heard him call me “sunshine” as Dad and Shane continue arguing. I was so wrapped up in my thought, I didn’t hear Shane insult Daryl and was suddenly holding back a very angry Daryl from punching the guy I hate in the face. Finally he stopped and pulled him to his side, not holding me there, but keeping me close to him while glowering at Shane. I felt someone staring at me and turned my head over my shoulder to see Carol with her arms crossed and her hip cocked. This was getting to be too much like high school.

“Let me talk to Hershel, figure this out. If we gonna stay, if we’re gonna clean out this barn, I have to talk to him. This is his land!” Dad yelled.

“But Hershel thinks they’re just sick.” I said.

“She’s right, he thinks those things in there are people, sick people, his wife, his step-son.” Dale said.

“You knew?” Dad asked.

“Since yesterday. Glenn told me.” Dale said.

“I found it, but Maggie told me not to tell anyone, so I told JoJo and Dale.” Glenn said.

“Jimmy told me he thought they were just sick and Glenn told me about the barn, but I was sworn to secrecy on the barn and leaving the farm along with several other things. Y’all can’t be mad! I’m a kid who just got shot!” I yelled.

“This is crazy, Rick! If Hershel thinks those things are alive or not...” Shane yelled, but was cut off by the chains holding the barn doors closed started rattling. 

 


	12. Pretty Much Dead Already

We all stood staring at the shaking barn doors, nobody speaking, nobody moving. Finally my dad broke the silence.

“Let’s everybody go back to camp. I’ll talk to Hershel about this.” He said. Daryl released his hold on me and hiked his crossbow further up his shoulder as he walked away. Dad came over to me, “Come with me to go see Hershel, we should get your arm looked at. You’ve been moving too much.” He instructed.

“Dad, I’m fine. I’ll stay here.” I argued.

“She can come with me. I’ll watch out for her.” Carl said puffing his chest out. Dad and I looked over at Lori who nodded and smiled.

“Alright kiddo. Let’s go.” I said and Carl took off towards the camp with me and Lori in tow. Once we got to camp Lori grabbed some empty notebooks and pencils and she and Carl started do some math problems while I started jotting down different ideas for stories I would never write.

“Does Shane think Sophia is dead?” Carl asked breaking the peaceful quiet.

I looked at Lori, unsure of what to answer, “Shane’s just scared.” She answered.

“Of the walkers in the barn?” Carl asked.

“Yeah.” Lori answered.

“I’m not leaving until we find Sophia and I don’t want to go even after that.” Carl confessed

“Well then it’s a good thing that we are going to find Sophia. We already found the place we think she was staying and her doll. She’ll show up sooner or later. As for staying on the farm, I agree, but that’s for Dad and Hershel to decide.” I explained and Carl seemed to accept my answer.

“You’re sister is right, we’re not leaving. Now finish those problems.” Lori said.

Carl picked the pencil back up, “I just think she...she’s gonna like it here. This place, it could be a home.” He smiled and Lori grabbed him in a hug.

“Ya know what? I think Sophia is incredibly lucky to have a friend like you.” I said.

Lori and Carl continued working on the homework she had assigned him so I went to the barn to go see the horses. Inside I saw Daryl struggling to get a saddle ready.

“What the Hell do you think you’re doing?” I snapped crossing my arms.

“Go on, JoJo. I don’t need some little girl tellin me what I can and can’t do.I’m fine.” He said grabbing some reins from the wall.

“We both know that’s a lie.” I argued.

“I don’t care.” Daryl growled opening on of the stalls. 

I walked up and started stroking the horse's mane, “My dad is going to go out and pick up the trail today. I know he’s not as good a tracker as you, but he’ll be fine. You need to rest.” I suggested gently.

“I ain’t gonna sit around and do nothing.” He said.

I walked to around so I was looking in the horse’s eye and brushing her nose, “No, I forgot, you’re going to go out there and get yourself hurt even worse. You know, if the position were switched you would never let me go back out there. Remember that time at the quarry after we went back to Atlanta when I got sick and you made me sit in the shade by you for the rest of the day?” I asked, smiling at the memory.

“Tell ya the same thing I did then: need to take better care of yerself. Shouldn’t you be resting yer shoulder?” He asked.

“Shouldn’t you be resting your entire body?” I shot back turning to look at him standing next to me.

He was silent for a moment, “Carol doesn’t think we’re going ta find her.”

“What?” I asked in complete shock.

“She told me earlier that we didn’t need to go out today because she didn’t think we would find her.” He explained.

“She had the nerve to tell you that after you have almost killed yourself looking for her daughter for the last few days!?  How could she do that? We’re trying to help find this girl, help her get through this, I just promised me little brother that we would find his best friend and she doesn’t want us looking?” I yelled.

“You’re good with them.” He said.

“...What?” I asked.

“The horses. You’re good with them.” He explained.

“Thank you. My best friend, Jenna, she had a ranch in my hometown and I would always go over and help her take care of them.” I said and he nodded, “Daryl, why do you know  so much about be, but I know nothing about about you?” I asked.

A faint trace of a smile appeared on his lips, “Ain’t nothing to tell, Sunshine.” 

Someone coughed at the entrance of the barn and we sprung apart to see Glenn standing there sheepishly.

“Um...Rick wants to see us.” He said before running away. Daryl and I quickly made our way over to the truck where Dad went over the plan to look for Sophia for today even though it was only him and Andrea going out. Dad, Andrea, Daryl, Glenn, T-Dog, and I gathered around the map.

“...Also shows she could be moving this way south. If Sophia kept in that direction, she might have gotten out of the forest and into the farmland. So we take 74 up to Ivy Road, then push down south on foot through forest, until we hit Christopher, go east a couple of miles and double back.” Dad explained.

I noticed a section that would be missed, “What about…?” I started before I was cut off.

“Rick.” Hershel called and we all turned around to face him.

“Hershel, we just have our guns out because we’re going to look of Sophia.” He explained.

“Before you do that, I could use your help with something.” Hershel said.

“Count us in.” Andrea said volunteering the whole group which included an injured T-Dog, Glenn, and I. I raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Thank you, but I just need Rick.” Hershel said and he and Dad glared each other down.

“I’m going to go keep watch at the barn until you’re ready.” Andrea said, eagerly grabbing a gun.

“I’m going to go keep watch with Dale.” Glenn said walking off.

“And I’m going to go be anywhere, but here.” I said turning on my heel and walking away.

……….

Later Carl and I were sitting in the shade and I was teasing Carl about wearing Dad’s sheriff hat when Shane stomped past us and Carl jumped up to follow him. I didn’t trust Shane alone with Carl so I followed before them.

“Shane! Can I talk to you for a sec?” Carl asked.

Shane stopped walking and turned to look at us, “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I know you think Sophia is dead and that we should stop looking for her. But that’s bullshit.” Carl snapped and I widened my eyes.

“Hey, man, watch your mouth!” Shane snapped.

“Don’t tell him what to do!” I said.

“We’re gonna stay here until we find her!” Carl continued.

“You think that’s what we should do?” Shane asked sarcastically.

“It’s what I know we should do.” Carl responded and I put my hand on his shoulder before glaring at Shane.

“Then we stay. That means we got to whatever we got to do to make that happen.” Shane said.

“Like help with the chores?” Carl asked and Shane nodded.

“Carl, Georgia, come help me with this.” Lori called for us and I knew she had seen us talking to Shane.

“Why don’t you go see what your mom wants?” Shane suggested, “And don’t let me hear you talk like that again.”

“Come on.” I said pushing Carl in front of me so I could shoot Sahne one more evil look, “Don’t let him tell you what to do, okay?” I told Carl and he nodded.

When we got over to Lori she had us sit down and peel carrots with a knife while she cut them once we were finished.

“I don’t want you two walking to Shane.” Lori said.

“Fine by me.” I said.

“Why?” CArl asked.

“Shane is very stressed right now and he’s upset because of it. I don’t want you caught in the crossfire” Lori explained and Carl nodded before he stood up and walked away.

“Does he know?” I asked.

“Yes.” She said.

“Does he think it’s his?” I asked.

“...Yes.” She answered.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I’m going to keep it and raise it as your father’s regardless.” She explained and I nodded.

I got up and walked over to the RV to see if Glenn needed a break from guard duty when a hand grabbed my shoulder and I whipped around.

Daryl was holding my arm and looking at me, “Come on, I wanna show you somethin’.” He said and he grabbed my wrist before leading me to the edge of the woods. I couldn’t get the ridiculous smile off her face as we walked down to the creek we had been walking up and down for the last several days until we reached a bush full of the flowers that looked like the one he gave me.

“Cherokee roses, right?” I asked.

“Yeah. The story is that when American soldiers were moving Indians off their land on the trail of tears the Cherokee mothers were grieving and crying so much ‘cause they were losing their little ones along the way from exposure and disease and starvation. A lot of them disappeared. So elders, they, uh, said a prayer. Asked for a sign to uplift the mother’s spirits, give them hope. The next day, this rose started to grow right where the mother’s tears fell. I’m not fool enough to think there’s any flowers blooming for my brother. But I believe there is one blooming for that little girl. That’s why I gotta find her.” He said.

I reached up to brush the tears off my face as he finished the story, “I’m so sorry about your brother and I’m so proud of you for looking for Sophia.” 

He leaned forward and picked one before handing it to me.

“You should give it to Carol.” I said.

“Why?” He asked.

“I think it will be a nice reminder of her daughter and about how much you care.” I smiled and he leaned towards the bush to snatch another flower. He handed the second flower to me and once we made it back to camp he left to go give Carol the flower.

As I walked back I got an eye full of Glenn and Maggie making out by the RV and turn on my heels to walk the other way. I noticed that the truck was still here and when I looked further to the farm, Andrea was still guarding it. I wondered what Hershel needed Dad’s help with for so long.

Beth, Carl, and Patricia were sitting on the porch playing chess and I sat down on the steps, enjoying the warm Georgia weather. A few minutes later Maggie and Glenn joined me and we sat around laughing and joking until T-Dog and Andrea walked over looking very concerned. 

“Do you know what’s going on?” T-Dog asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I answered.

“Where is everyone?” Andrea asked.

“You haven’t seen Rick?” Glenn asked.

“I was just noticing that he was still gone.” I said.

“What do you mean?” Glenn asked

“He went off a couple of hours ago with Hershel and they haven’t come back yet.” I said.

“We were suppose to leave hours ago.” Andrea said.

“Yeah, you were,” We all turned to see Dayl approaching with Carol in tow, “What the Hell are you doing here?”

“Rick told us he was going.” T-Dog said.

“Damn it. Isn’t anybody taking this seriously?” Daryl snapped, “We gotta us a damn trail. Oh here we go.” 

I looked to where he was pointing and saw Shane approaching with the bag of guns over his shoulder and a rifle in his hand.

“What’s all this?” Daryl asked and Shane shoved the gun in his hand.

“You with me, man?” Shane asked.

“With you for what?” I asked.

“Time to grow up, JoJo. Andrea, you already got yours?” Shane asked as they started walking.

“Yeah.” She said pulling out there gun and I realised they were heading towards the barn.

“No! You can’t do this!” I yelled running after them.

“You grab your gun or bow and help us or you stay out of this!” Shane shouted. 

I grabbed Daryl’s arm, “Daryl, please! Don’t do this.”

“I’m doin’ this to keep everyone safe! You want your brother living somewhere with a barn full of walkers?” He asked and I let go of his arm.

“We thought we couldn’t carry.” T-Dog said as Shane handed him a gun.

“We can and we have to.” Shane corrected.

Shane turned and faced everyone standing behind him, “Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was suppose to be safe. But now we know it ain’t. How ‘bout you man? You gonna protect your own?” Shaane said shoving a gun into Glenn’s chest. He looked over at Maggie before nodding.

“Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight.” Maggie warned.

“I agree, we can’t leave yet.” I said.

“We have to stay Shane.” Carl said as Lori walked out of the house and looked around. “What’s this?” She asked.

“Insanity.” I answered.

“We ain’t going anywhere, okay?” Shane assured us, ‘Now look, Hershel, he’s just gotta understand. Okay? He...well, he’s gonna have to. We need to find Sophia, right. Here take this.” Shane said taking out a small pistol and handing it to Carl.

“Don’t you fucking dare, Shane! Carl put the gun down, now!” I yelled as Lori yanked the pistol away.

“Rick said no guns! This is not your call! It is not your decision to make!” Lori yelled in Shane’s face.

“Oh shit.” T-Dog said and we all turned around and my eyes widened as I saw Jimmy, Hershel, and Dad coming out of the woods with two walkers tied up, being led by ropes.

Shane took off running top speed and the rest of us quickly followed

Dad and Hershel were leading the walkers to the barn as we burst on to the scene and everyone started yelling at each other as I doubled over holding my shoulder and Glenn put his hand on my back.

“Hey Hershel, tell me something, could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?” Shane asked shooting the walker that Hershel was leading in the side and when it kept coming, he shot it in the head causing the walker to fall to the ground and everyone to freeze.

“Enough risking our lives for a little girl who’s gone! Enough of living next to a barn full of things trying to kill us! Enough, Rick, it ain’t like before!” Shane screamed before he turned around and started breaking the lock on the barn.

“Shane! Don’t do this brother!” Dad yelled.

“Stop!” Maggie screamed.

“Don’t do it, man.” Glenn begged.

Lori pulled Carl behind her as she called for Dad to stop this, but he was still holding the rope that had the second walker attached to it.

Daryl grabbed my arm, “You get behind me and stay behind me!” He demanded.

“ No way.” I said as he raised his gun.

The barn doors open and I stood by my groups side as they opened fire on the walkers coming out of the barn, piling on top of each other as they struggled towards us. I noticed that Glenn was looking to Maggie for permission before joining the firing squad a little ways from the barn doors.

A dozen or so walkers later, it seemed to be over, several bodies lying on the ground and we all stood in shock until we heard the faint sound of a growl and shuffling feet still coming from in the barn. My hand flew to my mouth and my eyes filled with tears as the last walker staggered out of the barn.

Sophia. 

Everyone stood completely still, lowering their guns as the little girl we had looked so hard for shuffled out of the barn that had been in our backyard the whole time. I heard Carol sob behind me and Carl begin to cry, but I couldn’t do anything, but stare at the little girl turned walker coming towards our group.

“Sophia!” Carol screamed running towards her daughter, but Daryl caught her last minute and she sagged against him.

Dad walked forward and raised his gun and I covered my eyes, but that didn’t block the sound of a gunshot going off.


	13. What Now?

What do you say when the moment comes that the words don’t reach? What do you say when you watch your dad, the leader of your group, have to put a bullet into the head of the little girl everyone had worked so hard to save? 

Everyone stood around the massacre outside of the barn, the only sound was Carol’s sobbing and the leftover ringing from the gunshot.I looked over and saw Carl had fallen to the ground and Lori was holding him as he cried. I wished someone would hold me right now. Carol escaped from Daryl’s arms and ran towards the farmhouse and slowly everyone started to disperse. I saw Daryl walk towards me, but I glared at him, pissed that he helped do this to our group when I begged him not to.

“JoJo, c’mon.” He begged and I slapped his chest, not hard but enough to get the point across as we all walked over to the house.

“We’ve been out combing these woods looking for her and she was in there all along? You knew!” Shane yelled.

“Leave us alone.” Maggie begged as she helped Hershel and Beth to the house.

Dad grabbed a hold of Sahne and yanked his arm, “Shane, stop it, man!” Dad yelled.

“Get your hands off of me!” He yelled pulling his arm free.

“I didn’t know.” Hershel whispered.

“Bullshit! I think y’all knew.” Shane called.

“We didn’t know!” Maggie screamed.

“Otis put them in there, maybe he found her and put her in there before he died.” Hershel said looking over his shoulder at Shane.

“Everybody calm down!” Dad said jumping between them.

“Get off my land!” Hershel yelled before he and the family walked into the house, slamming it behind them.

“JoJo, go find your brother and Lori.” Dad demanded, pointing over to where they were sitting a little ways away from the barn.

I walked over to the barn with my head down, but I didn’t run into anyone. I though about everyone that we had lost since the start of the apocalypse and lost about how the death of Sophia was hitting us harder than any other. Finally I ran into Carl and Lori and sat down next to them.

“I really thought I’d find her.” Carl whispered and I wrapped my arm around his shoulder.

“We all did.” I said and Lori kissed the top of his head.

“I mean me- that I’d be the one. Like maybe she was hiding somewhere in a cave or a tree. She’d be safe and I’d find her and bring her back.” Carl explained before dropping his head, “He did the right thing, shooting her like that. I would have done that.” I looked over his head to Lori who looked as shocked as I was. 

“Carl, go inside. I want you to rest.” Lori said.

Dad walked up as Carl stood to go to the house, “You dropped your hat.” 

Dad sat down with us, squishing me between Lori and him, “So when do we have to leave?” I asked.

“We don’t yet. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Hershel.” Dad said.

Jimmy walked over to us, followed by Andrea, T-Dog, and Shane.

“Should we start burying?” Dad asked.

“We need a service. Carol would want that for Sophia.” I said.

“I think we all need that.” T-Dog agreed.

“We should honor Hershel’s family too.” Jimmy said.

“Let’s dig a grave for Sophia, Annette, and Shawn” Lori nodded.

“We should do it over by those trees, by otis.” I said pointing to some trees in the distance.

“We’ll need some trucks to move the bodies.” T-Dogs said rubbing his neck.

Jimmy nodded, looking at the ground, “I’ll get the keys.”

“No. No. I’ll get the truck.” Shane said walking away.

“And the others? That’s a lot of digging.” Jimmy said.

“We’ll bury the ones we love and burn the rest.” I said standing up and brushing off my jeans.

“Georgia. Can you check on your brother? I need to talk to your dad.” Lori said.

“I don’t want you two around this, JoJo. Make sure Carl’s asleep and help out around camp, but I don’t want you digging with your shoulder.” Dad said and I nodded before walking the trek up the farm house. I froze at the bottom of the porch stairs and debated how to approach until Maggie opened the door.

“You can come in, ya know. You aren’t banished. Carl’s resting if you want to check on him.” She said holding the door open for me. We walked in silence until we reached the room Carl was sleeping in and I watched him rest for a moment, “Why don’t you go sit and I’ll change the dressing on your shoulder.” Maggie said walking away to grab gauze.   
I went and sat next to Carl and looked at my little brother who had admitted moments ago that he would have shot one of his best friends who had turned into a walker and felt my eyes tear up a bit. Maggie came in a moment later and helped me take off my shirt so she could change the wrappings.

“If it makes any difference, I want you to stay. Daddy wants your group off the farm, well Shane at least.” She said.

“I’m not surprised. We’re lucky no one got killed and all that gunfire probably attracted more walkers.” I said.

After we finished my shoulder we got some snacks and water together and brought it out to the people digging the graves.

“That’s it.” Shane said a moment later hoping out of one of the graves.

“JoJo, why don’t you go get Daryl and Carol.” T-Dog suggested and I walked off towards the RV where I found Daryl sitting on the counter with his crossbow and Carol sitting at the little kitchen table staring out the window.

“They’re ready. Come one.” I said gently reaching my hand out to her.

“Why?” Carol whispered.

“‘Cause that’s your little girl.” Daryl said.

Carol lifted her head and let us see her tear filled eyes, “That’s not my little girl. That’s some other...thing.” She said before looking back out the window, “My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time I thought...she didn’t cry herself to sleep, she didn’t go hungry, she didn’t try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago.”

I looked over at Daryl before nodding to Carol and walking out of the RV, I heard Daryl’s footsteps behind me.

“I’m going to try and find Lori, see if she can get through to her.” I said and Daryl grunted, keeping his eyes trained at the ground. I shoved my shoulder against his, “Hey. I’m sorry I hit you. Even if it was a weak slap.” I said and he smiled before walked away.

……….

It was a sunny, warm, Georgia day when we buried Sophia and some of the other walkers next to Otis’s grave. We had all put on our best clothes, hershel was in a suit, Carl had a nice button down, the Greene family was in their Sunday best, even Daryl found a shirt with sleeves. I was wearing one of the last dresses I owned and I noticed that both Glenn and Daryl looked at me in shock when they first saw me.

When the funeral ended we all went our separate ways, Dad went to talk to Hershel, Lori went to talk to Carol, Daryl stormed off somewhere, and everyone else went to burn bodies. I quickly went to my tent ad changed into my jeans and tank top, tying a flannel around my waist before putting my boots on and walking out.

“JoJo! Lori! Come help me!” Maggie called from the farm house. I didn’t know where Lori was, but I took off towards the house and I saw Lori coming from the other direction.

“What’s wrong?” I asked running into the house and Maggie led us upstairs.

“It’s Beth, she just collapsed. She’s completely frozen and unresponsive.” Maggie explained as they entered the room and saw Beth laying on the bed with Glenn standing next to her.

“She’s probably in shock.” Lori said.

“Where’s Hershel?” I asked.

“We can’t find him anywhere.” Glenn answered.

“Georgia, wait her, I’m going to let your dad know what’s going on.” Lori said before walking out of the room. Maggie sat down on one side of Beth’s bed and I took the other.

“Hey, kiddo.” Maggie whispered and I looked over to Glenn who looked worried.

A mintute later Lori, Dad, and Shane came into the room.

“Maggie, was Hershel a drinker?” Dad asked.

“No, he quit the day I was born, wouldn’t even allow liquor in the house.” Maggie said and my dad held up a flask.

“That was his father’s he gave it to him on the day he died.” Maggie explained.

“What’s the barn in town?” I asked.

“Hatlin’s. He practically lived there in his drinking days.” Maggie explained.

“That’s where I’ll find him.” Dad said.

“I’ve seen it in town, I can take you.” Glenn said.

“No!” Maggie comanded.

“Hey, Maggie? I’ll bring him back.” Dad said gently, but Maggie still looked unsure.

“I can go with you, Dad. Glenn can give me the directions.” I offered.

“No, I’ll go, it’ll be fine Maggie. I’ll have Shane and Rick watching my back. Why don’t you walk me to the truck.” Glenn said sweetly.

Maggie looked over at me in concern, “Will you stay with Beth?” She asked and I nodded.

Maggie cme back up looking very upset and she angrily sat down on the bed.

“So…?” I asked.

“I told Glenn I loved him.” She said.

“That’s great!” I said.

She scoffed, “He didn’t say it back.” 

“Oh.” I said thinking of what to say next, “I won’t be too upset by it.” 

“Really? Have you ever told someone you love them and had them not say it back?” She snapped.

“What I meant was, you probably caught Glenn off guard. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s a bit of a shy, quiet, nerd. The only women who have ever told him he loved him are probably his mom and his sisters. I’m sure he’ll say it soon.” I said.

Maggie bit her lip, “I didn’t even know that he had sisters.” She confessed.

“Well, that’s another thing, you two don’t know each other very well and he’s a fairly practical person, he’s probably wondering how you two could be in love and not know each other's middle name. That’s not to say you aren’t in love, but to him it probably seems too fast. Plus, he’s a guy. You should feel lucky the guy you like will give you a verbal answer instead of a grunt!” I said and Maggie burst out laughing.

“Thanks JoJo.” She smiled.

Lori, Andrea, Patricia, and Jimmy came into the room to check on Beth and everyone was silent as Patricia looked her over. Lori and Andrea motioned me over as Patricia set an IV in Beth’s arm.

“How is she?” Lori asked.

“Her heart’s racing and she’s burning up.” I answered crossing my arms and leaning on the door jam.

“We need Hershel. He’ll know what to do.” Andrea said. I looked over at Lori, unsure if we were sharing the news that Hershel was missing.

Lori paced for a moment, “Andrea would you stay with Beth? Georgia, go check on Carl for me?” She asked. We nodded and split up, heading off to various bedsides.

……….

Half an hour later Carl had woken up for a bit before nodding off again and was now completely asleep when someone quietly knock on the doorframe. I looked up and saw Daryl and smiled.

“Hey, Sunshine. Your stepmama around here anywhere?” He asked quietly. I stood up and walked out into the hallway with him so we wouldn’t wake up Carl.

“I haven’t seen her in a while, why?” I asked.

He looked sheepishly at the floor, “I snapped at her when she asked me to go into town to find yer daddy and Hershel fer Beth. Told her to go herself. Car’s missing now.” He explained rubbing the back on his neck. I closed my eyes, now both my parents, Hershel, and Glenn were gone and we had no way to get in touch with them,

“Well, she must have gone after them, Glenn’s been into town plenty of times with no trouble and it’s only a fifteen minute drive, I’m sure she’s fine. But if anyone asks, they are all her, no one is missing, and no one is in town.” I said and he nodded. He turned to walk away, but stopped and raised a hand to my cheek, slowly moving his thumb across it before disappearing out the front door. I leaned against Carl’s door and thought about what to do next, everyone I considered in charge was gone, Andrea was busy helping Maggie, T-Dog was out burning walkers, Dale was on watch, and I would never trust Shane enough to give him this position of authority even for a few seconds. I sank to the ground and buried my face in my knees.

 


	14. TriggerFinger

Carl, T-Dog and I were setting the table for the dinner Patricia was putting together to try and create a sense of normalcy in a world where Hershel, Lori, Glenn, and Dad were missing and we had just invaded their home and shot up a barn full of walkers. Andrea and Shane walked into the room as Patricia walked in with some vegetables.

“They shoulda been home by now.” Andrea said.

“Yeah, they just got holed up somewhere.” Shane said sitting down at the table, “We’ll head out first thing in the morning.” I grabbed Carl and dragged him down to the other end of the table.

Carol came in and set down a plate of rolls, “Thank you.” I smiled as I looked into her sad, ed tinged eyes.

“Carl, JoJo, I want you to hold your heads up okay. Your old man is a tough son of a…” Shane started and I leaned over and slapped my hands over Carl’s ears.

“No cussing in the house.” Patricia scowlded. 

Carol walked to the door and called for everyone to come join us, “Lori, dinner!”

“Is Lori back?” I asked.

“Did she leave?” Dale asked as he walked in and sat down.

“She said she was going to go find Dad. Is she not back yet?” I asked.

“When’s the last time you two saw your mom?” Shane asked.

“This afternoon.” Carl answered.

“She was worried about Rick.” Andrea said.

“Daryl said that she came and talked to him about going into town. All he told me was they fought and he wanted to apologize.” I said.

“Nobody panic. She’s gotta be around here somewhere. JoJo, go see if you can get any more out of Daryl. Carl go with her. Everyone else, split up and search the house and grounds.” Shane commanded and we all stood up and left, leaving Jimmy and Patricia still sitting at the table.

I grabbed Carl and led him outside where I knew I would find Daryl. I saw a small fire burning by our camp and saw Daryl sitting in front of it while polishing his crossbow.

“Lori and the others aren’t back yet.” I said as I approached with Carl in tow.

“Yeah.” He said nonchalantly. “I already told her, I’m done being her errand boy.”

I knelt down next to him and Carl sat down a little ways away, but still in my line of sight, “Don’t do this. Please. We’ve lost too much.”

“That wasn’t my problem neither.” He said standing up and stalking away. I sighed and ran my hands over my face.

“What shouldn’t he do?” Carl asked.

“What?” I asked.

“You asked him not to do something. What was it?” He asked.

“I don’t want him to shut down. It’s grown up stuff.” I said waving it off.

We went over to the rest of the group and met up with everyone had gathered from searching for Lori and I heard Carl sniffle as we realized that no one had found Lori. Shane walked over to one of the cars and climbed in, turning the engine over and driving away.

“So that’s Hershel, Glenn, Shane, Lori, and Dad gone and Daryl has stalked off to God-knows-where.” I summarized.

Carl ran into the house and everyone started to meander back over to the farmhouse. I noticed that the fire was still burning unattended so I walked over to go put it out, but on the way I saw Daryl line tied between two trees for drying out meat. As I walked by it I saw the necklace of walker ears hanging on it and I stopped and stared at them.

“What are you doing?” Daryl’s voice asked as he grabbed my shoulder and turned me around.

On reflex, I punched him in the chest, “Don’t sneak up on me like that, asshole.” I scowled, putting a hand to my chest to calm my rapidly beating heart, “I came to put the fire out.” I said pointing over to the fire.

“Just go! I don’t want you here!” He yelled turning and walking away.

Every part of me was screaming to follow his command and go back to the house, but I took a deep breath and held my ground. He turned back to me with fire in his eyes when he realized that I wasn’t leaving, “You’re a real piece of work, girly. What, you gonna make this about yer daddy or some shit like that? You don’t know jack. And you ain’t my problem!” He got up in my face and screamed the last part. I didn’t realise I had been crying until his breath hit the water that was still on my face.

“There? Do you feel better now? Now that you’ve had your chance to scream and yell and pout like a little kid? I never asked to be your problem, you chose to care! Don’t turn your problems on me and make me feel like crap because you don’t know how to deal with everything!” I yelled back at him, standing on my toes to be level with his face.

He put his hand on the back of my head and drew me close to him, until our bodies were pressed together, we stayed there for a moment panting. I thought I must look ridiculous with tears in my eyes and on my cheeks and my hair a mess and my voice shot from yelling at him.

Daryl began to lean in when the sound on an approaching car cut us off, I saw that it was the car Shane had taken and I walked towards the farmhouse to get Carl, brushing away my tears as I did.

“Carl!” I yelled out as I walked into the house. I saw him sitting at the kitchen table with his arms crossed and his head in his hands, “Hey, buddy, Shane just got back, let’s go see if he found Mom or Dad.” I said crouching down and putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me with watery eyes and nodded. 

I lead him out of the farmhouse and just about halfway down the porch steps when we heard Lori’s voice cut through the air, “You lying asshole!”

“I think Shane found Mom.” Carl said.

“Yeah, I think Shane lied to her too.” I agreed as we started walking again. Lori saw us approaching and rushed forward to hug Carl, dropping down on her knees and kissing his forehead before she stood back up.

“I’m going back out there.” She said to Sahne.

“No, you’re not. Look, I gotta look out for you...I gotta look out for you and the baby.” Shane said then froze. Now it was out in the open.

“You're having a baby?” Carl asked with a twinge of hurt in his voice, “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“We haven’t told everyone yet.” I lied, I figured he knew this but he seemed to accept it for the moment.

Dale and Andrea both grabbed Lori, who I now saw had blood on her face and bruises on her arms, “Come on, let’s get you checked out.” Dale said. Carl trailed behind and I looked over at Maggie who had just come outside and wondered who was with Beth.

“Hey, why don’t I go sit with Beth for a bit, give you a break?” I suggested and she shook her head, “Okay. At least let me come sit with you.” I said as I grabbed her elbow and led her back to the house and her sister’s room. 

Beth was still in the same condition she had been all day, frozen, unmoving, barely breathing in her bed. I sat down in the chair while Maggie sat on the bed and held her sisters head.

Lori knocked on the door and poked her head into the room, “Georgia, can I talk to you and Carl for a moment?” She asked. I looked over at Beth and nodded. The three of us went and sat down in the livingroom with me and Lori on either ends of the couch.

“I think we need to talk about this baby.” Lori said after a minute.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” Carl asked.

“Well, we won’t know until it’s born.” Lori explained.

“Can I feel it?” Carl asked leaning over and placing his hand on Lori’s belly making me smile.

“Not for a while.” Lori answered.

“You sure have a lot of questions.” I noticed.

Lori’s eyes went wide and she looked up at me, “We never had the talk.” She realised.

I threw my hands up and pushed myself as far as I could against the arm of the couch, shaking my head and Lori chuckled.

“If the baby’s a girl can we name her Sophia?” Carl suddenly asked. I looked at him in shock.

Shane walked into the room then, “Hey, bud, I’m sorry. I thought you knew, Carl.” he apologized.

Carl sat up taller and straightened the sheriff's hat on his head, “Big brother Carl. pretty cool, huh?” He smiled.

“I’d say it’s very cool.” he chuckled, I looked over at Lori and saw how uncomfortable she looked and I wanted him out of there as soon as possible, “Do you two mind if I talk to your mom alone for a second?”

“How about later, after she’s had some rest?” I posed the command as a question.

“Lori, I had to get you back here. You wouldn’t have come home otherwise.” He came over and put his hands on the back of the chair and we all hung our heads and looked uncomfortable, “Now, how about you hear me out?”

“Georgia, why don’t you go back with aggie and Beth, take your brother with you.” She said practically pushing us off the couch. I spared one last glance at her over my shoulder as I left her alone with the crazy man who aimed a gun at my dad and who thought the baby was his.

……….

I woke up the next morning with a crick in my neck from sleeping in the chair in Beth’s room. I saw Maggie sleeping on the bed next to her sister and Carl nowhere in sight, I assume Lori grabbed him at some point.

Patricia came in a few minutes after I woke up with a plate of fruit for Maggie and I before shaking the other woman’s shoulders and checking on Beth. 

Andrea stopped in the doorway a moment later, “How is she?”

“She’s dehydrated. I’ll set up an IV. Best I can do without Hershel here.” Patricia said before looking down at Beth sadly and walking out of the room.

Andrea came and sat down on the bed, “Can I get you anything?” 

“No. I just wish my dad as here.” Maggie sighed and I nodded in agreement, wishing that her dad and my dad were here.

“She’ll be okay. You just need to be strong for here.” Andrea smiled.

“I was just thinking about...nevermind.” She said.

I perked up when I heard the smile in her voice, “What is it?” I asked.

“I want to hear this.” Andrea said sitting up and I moved the chair closer to the bed.

Maggie giggled, “My dad would die if he heard this. My first summer back from college, I drove home, dumped my stuff off, went straight out to the stable for a ride. My family comes back from church and Beth grabs my things and starts unpacking my stuff upstairs. Until this one starts hearing something rattling in my backpack. She finds this little plastic container with these pink and green candies inside. She didn’t even know I was on the pill. She was so freaked out by the idea of me, boys, and sex that she runs outside and chucks it in the duck pond. And as I ride up, I see this, and I’m screaming and she starts crying so Shawn runs out thinking one of us in drown. As soon as he figures out what’s happening the jerk burst out laughing so loud that my horse rears up and gets mud all over all three of us. My dad comes out, ‘what the heck is going on out here?’ and she turns around, bats her eyelids and says, ‘we’re just swimming, Daddy.’ In her Sunday dress all covered in snot and mud.” She giggled and I broke out laughing.

“Rick and Glenn will get your dad back.” Andrea whispered.

“Glenn’s a good guy.” Maggie nodded.

“Yeah, he is.” I agreed.

……….

Carl came sprinting into the room that Beth, Maggie, and I were in and grabbed my arm.

“Dad’s back with Hershel and Glenn!” He exclaimed. I looked over to Maggie who looked like she was ready to run out of the room until she looked down at Beth.

“I’ll stay with here. You go see them.” I said gesturing her out of the room.

Not five minutes later Hershel came upstairs with patricia in tow and they started working on Beth. I stood up and quietly excused myself from the room before heading downstairs where everyone was gathered around the kitchen table. My dad stood from his chair and wrapped me in a hug the moment he saw me.

“Hey, Peaches. Why don’t you take a seat? We were just about to discuss some important business.” He said. I looked around the table and saw an open spot between Daryl and Glenn and figured I had better chances standing. Dad began to explain about the teenage boy they had kidnapped, who had a pole go through his leg that they pulled him off of, and who we were now holding hostage so his group couldn’t find us.

“We couldn’t just leave him there. He would’ve bled out, if he lived that long.” Dad explained.

“It’s gotten bad in town.” Glenn said looking over at Maggie who was leaning against the wall with me.

“What do we do with him?” Andrea asked as Hershel walked into the diningroom

“I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he’ll probably have never damage. Won’t be on his feet for at least a week.” He said then looked between me and Daryl, “Speaking of being off your feet how are my patience doing?” He asked, I looked down at the ground and shrugged and Daryl didn’t answer.

“When Randle gets back on his feet, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road and send him on his way.” Dad said.

“Isn’t that the same as leaving him for the walkers?” Andrea asked.

“He’ll have a fighting chance.” Dad said.

“Just gonna let him go? He knows where we are.” Shane pointed out.

“He was blindfolded the whole way here. He’s not a threat.” Dad assured him.

“Not a threat. How many of them were there?” Shane demanded.”You killed three of their men, took one of them hostage, but they ain’t gonna come looking.”

“They left him for dead. No one is looking!” Dad promised.

“We should still post a guard just in case.” T-Dog said.

“He’s out cold right now, will be for hours.” Hershel said

“You know what, I’m gonna go get him some candies and flowers. We back in fantasyland.” Shane sneered before standing up and walking out of the room.

“You know, we haven’t even dealt with what you did at my barn yet. We need to make this very clear right here and now, this is my farm and I want you gone.” Hershel said to Shane, ‘Now Rick talked me out of it and I’m not saying I’m happy about it. But do us both a favor and keep your mouth shut.”

Shane sighed and walked out of the room, “I think we all need to cool off.” I said and everyone nodded and split up to talk to each other. I sat down on the kitchen table and I felt eyes on me. Looking over my shoulder I saw that Daryl saw still sitting, staring at me.

“I’m done with this Daryl. I’m done with the extreme hots and colds, I’m done with the fighting matches that turn into you trying to take care of me. I don’t know if you’re purposely messing with my feelings, if you don’t know any better, or if you’re scared, and frankly I don’t care. But I will not let you continue to drag me around like this.” I said to the wall, I heard Dayl push his chair out and suddenly he was in front of me with a soft expression on his face, “When we aren’t fighting, I really like being around you, but I can’t take you keeping everything bottled up and then throwing all your emotions at me. It’s not fair to me or you” I said. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek before jumping off the table and walking away.


	15. Judge, Jury, Executioner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of suicide. Attempt at Rape. Blood. Gore. Talk of death penalty. Also fluff.

A lot had happened in the last forty eight hours. Dad and Shane had unsuccessfully tried to abandon our hostage, Randle, about eighteen miles away from the farm. Now, they were back, covered in blood and not talking to each other and Daryl was “integrating” Randel in one of the back rooms of the stables which I had a sneaking suspicion meant beating him up. Besides that, Beth had tried to kill herself and Andrea had left her alone  which led to Beth’s wrist now being wrapped in gauze and Maggie kicking Andrea out of the house indefinitely. 

Andrea, Carl, Carol, Dale, Glenn, Lori, Maggie, and I were gathered around a cooking fire for breakfast by the camp listening to Dad and Shane relay what had happened.

“So, what now?” I asked the question that was on everyone’s  mind.

“We’d all feel better if we knew the plan.” Lori said.

“Is there a plan?” Andrea asked.

“We’re gonna keep him here?” Glenn said over her.

Dad and Shane looked at each other briefly, “We’ll know soon enough.”

Daryl walked over with crossbow slung over his shoulder and his knuckles bloody. I knew winter must be coming soon because Daryl was wearing a shirt with sleeves and looking around I saw everyone had a jacket on.

“Boy there’s got a gang. About 30 men.They have heavy artillery and ain’t lookin’ to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they’re...they’re gonna wish they were.” Daryl finished. Normally I would rip him a new one for grouping all the women in the camp as “their women”, but we were in the middle of a group meeting and I was slightly terrified about what he said and if it was true.

“What did you do?” I asked gesturing to his knuckles.

“Had a little chat.” He said.

Dad nodded and looked around the group, “No one goes near this guy.” He ordered.

“Rick, what are you going to do?” Lori asked.

“We have no choice, he’s a threat. We have to eliminate that threat. It’s settled. I’ll do it today.” Dad said and he started to walk away.

Dale chased after him, “You’re gonna kill him!”

As the group started to break up I walked over to Daryl and put my hands on my hips, “So we’re ‘your women’ now?” I asked raising an eyebrow. 

He looked up at me and the corner of his mouth lifted up a little, “Damn right ye are.” I shook my head and gave a soft laugh as he walked into the woods to do some hunting. It had been a long time since I had even touched my bow and I decided that some target practice was in order. I quickly went to my tent and grabbed my bow before walking towards the woods.

……….

After half an hour, my arms were sore and I was getting hungry so I gave up on practice and started walking back to the camp.

“Georgia!” I heard Shane yell and I froze.

“Yes?” I answered weakly.

“What the Hell did you do?” He screamed. I honestly had no idea what he was talking about and I felt myself start shaking with fear. Shane shoved me up against a tree and just stared at me with hatred in his eyes. Suddenly he smirked and moved his arm so his forearm was pressing against my throat and his other hand reached down to the top button of my flannel.

“Stop it! No!” I screamed and started fighting his hold. Shane raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face twice. I felt my eye sting, my cheek swell, and my lip bleed. I immediately started sobbing as his hand went back to my top. A branch snapped somewhere behind me and we froze in place, my shirt now half undone. The pressure on my throat was lifted off as Shane ran away and I sank to the ground lightly placing my hands on my neck and sobbing.

“JoJo? That you?” I heard Daryl call, but I didn’t answer. He walked up behind me and rounded the tree I was sitting against.

He took one look at my face and his expression turned dark, “What the Hell happened?” He demanded.

“Nothing.” I muttered through my tears, staring at the empty space in front of me.

“Don’t lie to me woman.” He said as he knelt down in front of me. I could see the anger in his eyes simmering, but I knew it wasn’t directed towards me, however I hopewd that the concern in his eyes was.

“Shane.” I whispered my answer.

“Son of a bitch.” He snarled as he stood and started pacing, putting his hand behind his head.

“Why are you so angry? Shane is being a dick to everyone now a days, but I’ve never seen you get this upset about that.” I pointed out, rubbing my eyes.

“Why? I’ll tell you why! There ain’t nothing worse than a woman and child beater. Any man who does that ain’t no man. And...I care ‘bout you.” He confessed the last part quietly. I remembered seeing the scars on his back a week ago and wondered if that’s where the strong hatred of abusers started.

“I know you care about me. I care about you, too.” I said trying not to get my hopes up.

“No. Not as a friend. I care about you.” He whispered. My eyes widened as I saw him take a calming breath before taking a step towards me and looking into my eyes for permission. I stood on my toes and pressed my lips to his gently, careful of my split lip. He raised his hand to my uninjured cheek and caressed his thumb across it.

……….

Daryl didn’t let me more than an arm's length away from him for the rest of the day, we walked around the camp together and talked. I talked, he listened.

“I hope this isn’t too forward of me, but I really want to hold your hand.” I joked before I grabbed his hand and wrapped it in my tiny one. 

He helped me forget about Shane for a few moments and wrapped his arm around me every time I tensed up at a noise or a feeling. Daryl took me over to a falling down chimney structure on the edge of the property were all his things were set up and I sat and watched as he cleaned his crossbow and my longbow. Dale came over to us looking very nervous and I immediately sat up.

“The whole point of me being out here is to be away from people.” Daryl scoffed.

“Gonna take more than that. You okay, JoJo?” He asked looking at my face and I nodded as Daryl drew himself up to his full height and took a step in front of me, which I rolled my eyes at.

“I’m fine, Dale. Thank you.” I said.

“Carol send you?” Daryl asked.

“Carol’s not the only one that’s concerned about you, your new role in the group.” Dale said.

“Man, I don’t need my head shrunk. This group’s broken. I’m better off fending for myself.” Daryl snapped and I dropped my gaze to my feet.

“You act like you don’t care.” Dale pointed out.

“That’s cause I don’t.” Daryl snapped and I sincerely hoped that he was just saying that to get Dael to leave and he didn’t really mean anything he was saying.

“So live or die, you don’t care what happens to Randall?” Dale asked.

“Nope.” Daryl said. I couldn’t say that I agreed with killing him, he was my age, but he was a threat and Daryl said that his group had raped two teenage girls and made their father watch. My eyes teared up at the thought and I drew myself into a tight ball.

“Why not stand with me, try to save the kids life, if it really doesn’t matter to you one way or another?” Dale asked.

“Didn’t peg you for a desperate son of a bitch.” Daryl said and he came and sat on the ground next to me, putting an arm around my shoulder and I buried my face in his chest.

“Both of your opinions make a difference.” Dale argued.

“Ain’t nobody looking at me for an opinion. JoJo, sure, but not mine.” He said.

“Carol is, and I am right now.” Dale said. “You both have Rick’s ear.”

“Dad is just going to look to Shane no matter what he does.” I whimpered and I heard Daryl growl a little under his breath.

“Daryl,you cared about what happened to Sophia, you care about JoJo. Torturing people? That isn’t you. You’re a decent man. So is Rick. Shane...he’s different.” Dale said.

“Why? Cause he killed Otis? Cause he attacked JoJo?” Daryl asked.

“Daryl!” I cried, not wanting this information to get out. “Just go Dale! We’ll give you our answer when we meet at dinner.” I said standing up and pushing myself away from Daryl. Dale stood in place for a moment before taking off.

“I’m sorry. I was just angry.” Daryl muttered standing up and rubbing the back of his neck.

“I know. Thank you. But you don’t have to protect me. I’m a big girl.” I said tipping his chin so he was looking at me. He grabbed me in a hug and we stayed there for a while.

……….

When the sun began to set Daryl and I made our way to the farm house and took a seat on the couch in the livingroom. Daryl put his arm around me and Lori and Dad raised their eyebrows,but said nothing to us.

“Let’s gather up.” Dad said as everyone came into the room. Carl went to stay up stairs with Jimmy and Beth, but everyone else was in silence in the room.

“So how do we start this?” Glenn asked.

“Take a vote?” I said quietly. I noticed that I couldn’t really raise my voice to anyone today.

“Does it have to be unanimous?” Andrea asked.

“How about majority rules?” Lori suggested.

“Well, let’s just see where everyone stands then we’ll talk through the options.” Dad said.

“Where I sit, there’s only one way to move forward.” Shane said. I bit my lip and buried myself under Daryl’s arm. I wanted to be strong and tell everyone what happened, but the thought alone made me freeze up in terror.

“Killing him.” Dale summarized. “I mean, why even bother taking a vote? It’s clear which way the wind’s blowing.”

“Well, if the people believe we should spare him I want to know.” Dad said.

“I can tell you it’s a small group. Maybe just me, Glenn, and JoJo.” Dale said. I felt very uncomfortable about telling him I was leaning towards killing randall. I didn’t want to, but his group attacked ours and we were safe on the farm, and what about Carl and the baby? We couldn’t afford to lose this place to a guy who comes from a group of killer rapist.

“Look,” Glenn sighed, “I think you’re pretty much right about everything all  the time, but this…”

“They’ve got you scared!” Dale accused.

“He’ not one of us.” Glenn retorted.

“I...I agree. We can’t risk him leading another thirty men with heavy artillery back here, we don’t have the people of the ammo.” I said.

“We’ve lost too many people already.” Glenn agreed.

“What about you? Do you agree with this?” Dale asked pointing at Maggie.

She looked over at my dad, Couldn’t we just keep him as prisoner?” She suggested.

“Just another mouth to feed. It may be a lean winter.” Hershel said.

“We could try and ration better.” Lori said.

“Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself.” Dale snapped.

“Put him to work, maybe?” I through into the mix.

“We’re not letting him walk around.” Dad said.

“We could put an escort on him.” Maggie shrugged.

“Who wants to volunteer for that duty?” Shane said sarcastically.

“I will!” Dale said.

“I don’t think any of us should be walking around with this guy.” Dad said holding a hand up to silence Dale.

“He’s right. I wouldn’t feel safe unless he was tied up.” Lori said.

“We can’t exactly put chains around his ankles and sentence him to hard labor.” Andrea said.

“Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he’s helpful, maybe he’s nice. And then we let our guard down and maybe he runs off brings back his thirty men.” Shane said.

“So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime he may never even attempt!? If we do this, we’re saying there is no hope. Rule of law is dead, there is no civilization.” Dales preached.

“Could we drive him further out?” I asked.

“Leave him like you planned? There should be enough gas.” Hershel agreed.

“You barely came back this time.” Lori looked at Dad. “There are walkers, you could break down, you could get lost.”

“Or get ambushed.” Daryl added unhelpfully.

“They’re right. We should not put our own people at risk.” Glenn said.

Everyone was silent for a moment, “If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?” Pamela asked from the back of the room and everyone turned to look at her in mild shock.

“Could just hang him. Snap his neck.” Shane said.

“I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane.” Dad said.

“What about the body? Do we bury him?” T-Dog asked.

“Wow! Hold on! You’re talking about this like it’s already decided.” Dale yelled.

“You’ve been talking all day, goin’ round in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?” He asked making a circle motion with the hand around my shoulder and I caught a glimpse of the bracelet I had made him still around his wrist.

“This is a young man’s life! And it is worth more than a five minute conversation!” Dale shouted. “Is this what it’s come to? We kill someone because we can’t decide what else to do with him? You saved him, and now look at us. He’s been tortured, he’s gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people we’re so afraid of?” 

“Dale’s right. We can’t leave any stone unturned here.” Dad said.

“So what’s the other solution?” Andrea said throwing her hands up in defeat. “We haven’t come up with a single viable option yet.”

“So, let’s work on it!” Dale snapped.

“Stop it! Just stop it! I’m sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can’t ask us to decide something like this. Please decide either of you, both of you, but leave me out.” Carol said.

“Not speaking out, or killing him yourself, there’s no difference.” Dale scolded.

“Alright, that’s enough.” Dad said, “Anyone who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance.” 

Everyone sat around looking at each other waiting for someone to take the floor, but no one stepped forward.

“You once said we don’t kill the living.” Dale said.

“That was before the living tried to kill us.” Dad argued.

“But, don’t you see? If we do this, the people that we were the world that we knew is dead! And this new world it’s ugly. It’s harsh. It’s survival of the fittest. And that’s a world I don’t want to live in and I don’t believe that any of you do. I can’t! Please. Let’s just do what’s right!” Dale spoke passionately then looked around the room, “Isn’t there anyone else who’s going to stand with me?”

“He’s right. We should try to find another way.” Andrea said.

“I didn’t think I would ever say this, but I agree with Andrea.” I said.

“That’s three. Anyone else?” Dad asked, but no one else seemed to step forward.

Dale shook his head, ‘Are y’all gonna watch too? No, you’ll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we are slaughtering a human being. I won’t be party to it.” He looked over at Daryl and me, “You’re right. This group is broken.”

……….

Later that night, after much protest from me, Daryl, Shane and Dad took Randall out to the barn to die however Shane and Daryl came back sooner than expected looking disgruntled.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Carl came to the barn and asked yer daddy not to shoot. Rick said he couldn’t go against both his kids wishes.” Daryl grumbed.

“Thank you for listening and not killing him on the way back to the barn.” I said standing on my tip toes and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

As soon as my feet were back on the ground a scream rang through the camp and I rushed to my tent to grab my bow and arrows. Everyone took off running towards the cattle field and I jumped over the fence rather than try to mess with the lock on the gate. Dad, Daryl, Glenn, and Andrea were all ahead of me and there were more footsteps behind me. By the time I made it to the scene Daryl had a knife in a walkers head and Dale was laying on the ground with his intestine in his lap.

“He’s suffering. Do something.” Andrea begged, kneeling by Dale’s said. 

Dad slowly drew his gun from his holster and fired.


	16. Better Angels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Blood, gore, mentions of attempted rape, mentions of sexual assult

I didn’t sleep that night. Everytime I closed my eyes I either saw Shane trying to touch me or Dale choking to death on his blood in the middle of a field. I spent most of the night crying silently to myself so I wouldn’t wake up Carl. The next morning, Dad and Lori woke us up early for Dale’s funeral.  as we stood around the newest grave that was under the oak tree on the edge of the property, right next to Otis and Sophia. I was standing in a circle with everyone else while Daryl stood a little outside of the group.

“Dale could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn’t afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare. And brave.” Dad said and I brushed a few tears away and heard Carl sniffle next to me. Dad shuffled his feet then continued, “Whenever I’d make a decision. I’d look to Dale. He’d be looking back at me with that look he had. We’ve all seen it one time or another. I couldn’t always read him, but he could read us.He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us-the truth, who we really are. In the end he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken; the best way to honor it is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety, our future. We’re not broken. We’re gonna prove him wrong. From now on, we’re gonna do this his way. This is how we honor Dale.” He nodded to himself.

……….

We broke apart and started discussing with Hershel about moving an extra group of people in the farm house, totalling in fourteen people in one house. Shane, Andrea, and T-Dog had gone off on some secret mission and I was glad to be rid of Shane for a while since I was extremely uncomfortable around him and I hadn’t told anyone, but Daryl, what had happened. 

“It’s gonna be tight. Fourteen people in one house.” Dad said snapping me out of my gaze.

“Don’t worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up…” Hershel listed.

“With 50 head of cattle on property we might as well be ringing the damn dinner bell.”  Maggie said.

“She’s right. We should have moved you in a while ago.” Hershel said.

I leaned on the truck and looked at the farm house, “We should move the cars near each of the doors facing towards the roads.” I suggested.

“I agree. We’ll also build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines, both side of the property. I’m going to hand out assignments. JoJo, go help Lori with moving, I don’t want her lifting anything too heavy.” Dad instructed.

I nodded and started walking towards our tents, until I felt a presences behind me. I turned to look and saw Daryl standing a few feet behind me.

“Are you following me?” I asked teasingly and he nodded, “You can stalk me all you want, but I helping Lori move things into the house so she’s probably going to put you to work.” I smirked as I turned to continue walking and didn’t hear Daryl following me.

“I’m on guard duty if you need me.” He mumbled.

I grabbed a few random bags and boxes and loaded them into one of the cars. T-Dog came and put a few of our water containers in the back then we closed the doors and I drove over to the front of the house and backed up to the front door. 

We finished unloading and moving all the cars to the farmhouse about an hour later, I was sitting on the front porch, tightening my bow string when I heard a motorcycle rev. I smiled and looked up to see Daryl pull up to the house.

“Hey, Dixon. When do I get a ride?” I asked standing up and leaning on the railing.

“When your mama and daddy stop sending me dirty looks every time I stand near you.” He answered.

“I hear you are my dad’s right hand man now and you two are going into town to cut Randel loose.” I said.

He grunted and shook his head and I raised an eyebrow at him, “We ain’t leaving for a while longer. Don’t want to leave you here. Not with him.”

I shuddered and nodded, ‘I’m thinking about telling Lori.” 

He nodded, “Think you should. I got a few things to do before yer dad and I leave. I’ll be fixin’ the barn.” He said. I waved and blew him a kiss as he walked away and he wrinkled his nose at me.

Lori poked her head out of the front door, “If you’re done flirting, we could use your help moving everything into other rooms.” She smirked and I followed her in the front door where Hershel, Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog were waiting and Jimmy started giving instructions.

“The men are in the back room if you want to follow me.” He led Carl and T-Dog.

“You can put your things in my room, Glenn.” Maggie offered 

Glenn blushed, “Maybe not when your dad is in the house.” He said and he followed Jimmy back.

“Georgia, I swear if you ask if you can stay in a room with Daryl…” Lori glared.

“Lori! I’m eighteen. I’ve kissed him a few, maybe two, times and I’m living in a house with thirteen other people, three of whom are my family.” I defended and she held her hands up in surrender and smiled.

She bent down to pick up a heavy tote, but I beat her to it, “Dad said not to let you strain yourself.” I explained.

“Alright. That goes in the corner of the livingroom. That’s where you, me, your dad, and Carl are staying.” Lori pointed.

“You can put that in my room.” Hershel said walking standing up from the couch he was sitting on, ‘You’ll be more comfortable.”

“We can’t do that.” I argued.

“A pregnant woman and a child on the floor while I’ve got a bed to myself?” Hershel asked and I suddenly realized that the invitation would not be extended to me and my dad. At least we’d be able to be in the same room.

“This is still your home.” Lori said.

“It’s our home. I’ll take the couch downstairs. On nights when I’d come home reeking of bourbon, my wife would lock the bedroom door. That couch and I are old friends.” Hershel said, turning and following the other men into the back room. My arms started shaking from holding up the heavy tote.

“So, where am I putting this?” I asked.

Lori shrugged, “I guess upstairs.”

We walked up the stairs to Hershel’s room and I set the box down, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw two chairs that Dad and I could take.

“Georgia? Is there something you want to talk about?” Lori asked timidly and I tensed up.

“No. Why?” I asked as nonchalantly as possible.

“Because you have been incredibly brave these last few months and you have taken on so much responsibility. You should be planning for college, not planning the fastest escape route out of a place.” She said.

“Actually, I always plan my escape route. Dad taught me to when I was really young.” I answered.

“Don’t try to change the subject. You were fine yesterday afternoon, then you came back with a black eye and split lip, holding Daryl’s hand, and you spent the whole night crying.” She said.

I felt tears well up in my eyes, “Daryl didn’t do anything! He helped me!” I shouted.

“Helped you with what? Sweetie, who hurt you?” She asked and the dam broke. I started sobbing and I couldn’t seem to stop, I vaguely felt Lori wrap her arms around me and lead me to sit by her on the bed.

“You can tell me. If you want this can stay between you and me. You know I won’t judge you.” She said and I knew she was telling the truth because despite how much we don’t get along she would never judge me for what Shane did to me.

“Something happened...I was out practicing with my bow...a-and Shane...Shane came up to me and started yelling at me-me. He p-p-pinned me to a tree and h-he started unbuttoning my top.” I sobbed burying my face in Lori’s shirt, “I-I-I screamed and he hit me...and I-I couldn’t stop him. But-t, then a b-branch snapped and he ran and D-Daryl found me and h-helped me.” I finished.

I felt a few drops land on my head and I knew Lori was crying to, “Everything is going to be okay. You were so brave for telling me and I know it hurts and you feel awful, but it’s going to be okay. He did the same thing to me at the CDC and we are going to work through this together.” She promised, rubbing my back and crying along with me.

“H-He tried to ra...hurt you, too?” I asked quietly. 

“Yes, and I was never brave enough to tell anyone about it.” She said. 

Maybe Lori and I will never be a perfect mother-daughter couple, but right now we were all we needed.

……….

Lori and I went back downstairs a while later and finished setting everything up. Dad and Daryl were out of the front porch planning and Hershel had suggested i do the polite young southern girl thing and bring them some lemonade. As I brought three glasses out for us, Shane pulled up to the porch and I tensed up, Daryl stood and placed himself in front of me.

“Have you seen Carl lately?” Shane asked.

“Why?” Dad asked.

“He came to me earlier. I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but he was in the swamp yesterday and he came across a walker stuck in the mud. He got scared and ran off.” Shane said.

“The same walker who killed Dale?” I asked timidly.

“I’ll have Lori talk to him.” Dad said turning back to the map in front of him.

“I think he needs to hear it from his father.” Shane said.

“It’s my call.” Dad snapped.

“How about I ride with Daryl, it’d be good for us to spend some time together.” Shane said.

“No.” Daryl, Dad, and I all said at once.

Shane nodded then pulled a gun out of his pants and slammed it down on the railing of the porch, “You might want that back Daryl, Carl took it earlier. Shane started to stalk off, Daryl took the gun, and Dad stormed inside to find Lori leaving me standing on the porch.

“Hey Shane!” I called out. He stopped and turned back to me and I took a deep breath before walking down the steps of the porch and standing in front of him.

I drew my hand back and punched him hard in the face, hearing a satisfying crack come from his nose.

“You stay away from me and my family you sick fucked up son of a bitch!” I screamed, hitting him again and kicking him in the shin. He bent over in pain and I strained my shirt and stalked back to the house, not looking back.

I walked back and saw Daryl putting the gun back in his bag on his motorcycle, “Atta girl.”

……….

Dad and Daryl were loading up the truck with the supplies for Randel and their own supplies while I sat out on the porch enjoying the last of the warmer weather. T-Dog had just gone to get Randel, Carl was inside getting yelled at by Lori, and Shane had yet to show his face around the house. For a moment I thought things might be going okay until T-Dog ran over to us without Randel in sight.

“He’s gone. The handcuffs are still locked. He must have slipped them.” T-Dog said.

“You guys go check out the barn, I’ll tell the others.” I said before going into the house. I walked into the kitchen were pretty much everyone was sitting, “So, Randel’s missing.” 

Everyone was immediately up and grabbing their weapons and I went and grabbed my bow from the upstairs bedroom.

“How’d he go missing?” Lori asked. 

“How long has he been gone?” Hershel added.

“What’s going on?” Andrea asked walking into the chaos that was beginning downstairs. 

“It’s hard to say.” Hershel said as we all walked over to the barn.

“Is it even possible for him to slipped out of those cuffs?” Carol asked.

“It is if you’ve got nothing to lose.” Andrea commented.

Hershel walked over to the barn door and picked up the still closed and intact lock, “It was locked from the outside and he didn’t break it.”

“Someone must have let him out.” Glenn said.

“Let’s not start pointing fingers.” Dad said trying to calm everyone down.

“I think it was Mr. Green, in the library, with the candlestick.” I joked and Glenn, Maggie, and Beth all giggled.

“Rick! Rick!” Shane yelled and we all turned to see him coming out of the woods looking freely bloodied, his nose in worse shape than I had put it in, “He’s armed! He’s got my gun.”

“Are you okay?” Carl asked and I wished he was able to see past Shane facade.

“I’m fine. Little bastard snuck up on me.” Shane answered.

Dad turned to look at the group, “Hershel, T-Dog, get everyone back into the house. Daryl, Glenn, JoJo, you’re with us.” I nodded and nocked an arrow in my bow. I still found it strangely amusing that 5’2, eighteen year old me was treated like a little girl when they wanted me to be and then thrown into the line of fire during a crisis. 

“T, I’m gonna need that gun.” Shane said walking over to T-Dog.

“Just let him go.” Carol pleaded, “That was the plan wasn’t it? To just let him go.”

“The plan was to cut him loose far away from here. Not in our front lawn with a gun.” Shane corrected.

“Don’t go out there. Y’all know what can happen.” Carol begged.

“Everyone back in the house. Lock the doors and stay put.” Dad instructed before the five of us walked towards the tree line.

“I saw him head up through the trees that way before I blacked out.” Shane said vaguely pointing West.

“He couldn’t have gotten far. He’s hobbled, exhausted.” Dad said.

“And armed.” Glenn pointed out.

“So are we. Daryl, can you track him?” Dad asked and I seriously doubted it would be a yes since we could barely see anything with the setting sun.

“No. I don’t see nothing.” Daryl answered.

“Hey, look, there ain’t no use tracking him, okay.”  Shane said.

“Wait. I got somthin’. He went that way.” Daryl pointed. “We should pair up.”

“We spread out and just chase him down. That’s it.” Shane said.

“For a guy who was just attached and had his gun stolen, you really don’t want to find him.” I pointed out.

“C’mon man. The kids a buck 25 soakin’ wet, you’re trying to tell us he got the jump on ya?” Daryl asked backing me up.

“I say a rock pretty much evens the odds, wouldn’t you.” Shane argued.

“Alright, knock it off. Daryl started heading up the right flank. Glenn and JoJo, middle. Me and Shane will take the left. Remember, Randel’s not the only threat out there. Keep an eye out.” Dad said and they split up, I grabbed Daryl and Glenn and dragged them a little further away. 

“I don’t trust this at all and I know this is going to end badly is Shane and Dad are out there alone. My bet is that Shane has already killed Randel, I mean, he was a cop, I’ve seen him in action and Randel won’t have gotten the jump on him. You two take the left and I’m gonna follow them.” I explained and the guys nodded.

I quickly and quietly made my way after Shane and Dad staying far enough away that I could see them, but not hear their conversation. I watched them walk next to each other, never letting one get behind the others back, watched Shane constantly look around like someone was going to see them. Finally Dad slowed his pace and fell behind Shane, quietly pulling his trusty colt out of it’s holster and my breath caught in my throat.

I realised that a bow and arrow wasn’t the right weapon for what I was sure was going to go down between my dad and the man I used to see as my uncle. I withdrew the arrow and slung my bow across my back then pulled my gun out of the back of my jeans, double checked that my knife was in my hip holster at the ready, and continued to follow.

Shane led Dad all the way back to the clearing and I weighed my options, stick to the treeline and maybe not get there quick enough if something happened or step into the field and be seen and sent to the house like a little kid and someone would probably still end up dead. I decided to stick to the treeline and at least give my dad a fighting chance.

What I was witnessing almost looked like an old fashioned duel: Dad put his gun away and walked a few feet away from Shane, keeping his back turned to him and Shane seemed to turn partly to the side as well. I took a deep breath and walked out into the field since neither man was looking at me and bent down low in the tall grass.

Suddenly the two turned back to face each other and started to circle each other and I realised that even if they did see me, it wouldn’t stop them at this point. I undid the safety on my gun, but kept it pointed at the ground in front of me.

“We tried to kill each other!” Shane yelled suddenly startling me.

“So, what you’re just going to kill me in cold blood. Screw my wife. Have my children- _ my children _ -call you daddy now. Is that what you want?” Dad yelled back. I realised that they weren’t yelling, I had just managed to move myself close enough to hear them.

“There lives would be better.” Shane said and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. 

“You won’t be able to live with it.” Dad warned.

“You want to know what I can live with? Here I am, man! Raise your gun!” Shane said raising his arms up and I followed his instructions and raised my gun, still kneeling in the grass.

“I will not!” Dad said.

“I thought you were done being the good guy! Isn’t that what you said!” Shane shouted, “Even right here, right now, you ain’t gonna fight me for ‘em. I’m better a better father than you, Rick. I’m better for Lori than you, man. It’s cause I’m a better man than you, Rick. ‘Cause I can be here and I’ll fight for it. You come back here and you destroy everything! You got a broken woman, a weak boy, a fucked up daughter. You ain’t got the first clue how to fix it! Raise your gun!” Shane screamed drawing his gun and I aimed mine at the back of his head as my dad raised his hands.

“You’re going to shoot an unarmed man?” Dad asked.

Dad reached down and pulled his gun out and held it out to Shane, inching towards Shane and the moment Dad handed over the gun I watched him pulled his knife out of his stab Shane in the chest.

“Ah!” I shouted and covered my mouth with my free hand as Dad lowered Shane’s body to the ground and he started sobbing.

Dad looked over at me, “JoJo! What are you doing here?” He stood up and started walking towards me. Dad started rambling about how he had to do this, but my eyes were trained on Sahne body. He twitched. I swore I saw him twitch. I stood up and slowly raised my gun as Dad continue to beg me to understand and not be mad, which I wasn’t.

Shane stood up and I fired.


	17. Beside the Dying Fire

Some part of me must have blacked the next few moments out because next thing I knew my clip was empty and Dad and holding me and trying to lift me up off my knees.

“C’mon Peaches. Come on back now.” He soothed and I slowly felt my heart rate slow down and my thoughts return, “There’s my girl, come on let’s go back to the house now.” He said slowly helping me stand up. My legs felt shaky under me and Dad wrap an arm around my shoulders as we walked in silence.

“He wasn’t bit.” I whispered.

“You know that wasn’t Shane.” Dad said.

“He used to be.” I answered. 

Dad stopped walk and turned to face me, so I stopped walking as well. We stood looking at each other before I heard growling and I froze. I slowly turned and saw a herd of walkers that could top the one from the highway coming towards us.

Dad grabbed my bicep and shoved me towards the house, “Go! GO!” He screamed.

We stopped by the barn and hid by a tree.

“We have to get to the house, tell the others.” He whispered.

I looked out at the herd of walkers blocking our path, “We’ll never get through that.”

“Stay close, Georgia.” Dad said and I almost screamed as he grabbed me and pulled me into the thinnest part of the herd, ducking and diving between walkers until we reached the barn, running through the front doors and leaning against them to keep them closed. 

Dad slipped something through the handles to keep it closed and I reached up to wipe a few stray tears that had slipped down my face as the walkers banged on the doors.

“Grab that propane tank!” Dad ordered and I looked to where he was pointing and quickly caught on. I grabbed the tank and opened the valve, pouring the liquid onto the straw covering the floor.

A few board broke from the door and walkers started reaching into the barn.

“Oh shit!” I shouted.

“The hayloft! Go!’ Dad said and we ran towards the ladder leading to the next level, but Dad didn’t follow me.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’ll be right here. Drop the lighter when I say.” Dad said tossing me his lighter, “We’ll stop some of them from reaching the house and distract the others so at least we’ll have a chance.” I felt my breath start to become fast and short, but I tried to pull it together as Dad bent down to look me in the eye, “It’s going to be okay. You can do this.”

I nodded and turned to climb up the ladder leading to the hayloft. I heard Dad yelling than the creaking open and I looked down to see him quickly running backwards and a dozen walkers coming in. I opened the lighter and lite it, holding it over the floor of the barn.

“Now!” Dad yelled and I looked down to see him climbing the ladder as I dropped the lighter, then I took off towards the window.

We walked onto the ledge that lined the window and saw all of our cars out driving around and firing on the walkers. I saw the RV near by and waved my hand, flagging Jimmy, who was driving, down. He pulled the RV up under the window and I jumped down followed by my dad on to the roof and pulled out my gun, opening fire on the walkers outside the barn while climbing down

I imagined I looked pretty badass jumping onto a car from a burning building and shooting a bunch of zombies, but I think the tear tracks on my face, dirty clothes, and wild hair might have ruined the effect. I took off running as walkers swarmed the barn.   

I ran to the farmhouse that looked abandoned now and saw Hershel out front with his shotgun. “Where are Carl and Lori?” I yelled as we ran up.

“I don’t know.” He answered.

“Did you see which way they went?” Dad asked in a panic.

“No!” He shouted.

“We gotta go!” Dad said grabbing me and Hershel and dragging us away from the farmhouse towards the last car that was left and as I climbed in I saw Daryl’s motorcycle zip by with someone on the back of it and I breathed a sigh of relief that he had gotten out and wasn’t alone.

I looked back at the farm that once held so much hope for the future as we raced away from the fire and herd of walkers.

“Where are we going to go? How will we find the others?” I asked.

Dad took a deep breath before answering, “The highway. We’ll head back to the highway.”

……….

It didn’t take us long to reach the highway and when we did we pulled up to the car where we had left all the supplies for Sophia and climbed out of the car.

“Do you think the others will come here?” I asked.

“I hope so.” Dad whispered.

“You two should get to safety. I’ll wait here for my girls and the others. I know a few places. We can meet later.” Hershel said climbing out of the car, still holding the shotgun.

“I’m not leaving without the rest!” I said.

“Where? Where is safe?” Dad asked rhetorically, “We aren’t splitting up.”

I went and sat on a car’s trunk and dropped my elbows to my knees, looking around the abandoned highway and listening for approaching engines.

“Please, keep your daughter safe. I’ll hide in one of the cars. If a walker gets me, so be it. I lost my farm, I lost my wife, maybe my daughters.” Hershel said.

“They’ll be here. Along with Lori, Carl, and everyone else.” I promised myself.

“You’re a man of God. Have some faith.” Dad snapped.

“I don’t pretend to understand God’s plan, but Christ promised the resurrection of the dead. I just thought he had something a little different in mind.” Hershel said. 

Suddenly I heard a faint shuffling noise and looked up to see a lone walker coming towards us. As quietly as I possibly could, I stood up, bracing my feet on the back bumper and the trunk and grabbed my bow from where it was on my shoulder and an arrow, notching it in place and aiming. I carefully lined up the shot before releasing my breath and releasing the arrow, I watched as it flew through the air and hit the walker square in the head.

Hershel and Dad whipped their heads around to look at me, “JoJo, what are you doing?” He asked.

“Walker was coming up. I got it. I don’t see anymore coming, but we probably shouldn’t stay here much longer.” I said scanning the horizon, “Wait! I see something.” I called as I spotted three moving objects coming towards us.

I broke into a smile when I heard a familiar engine and I jumped off the car and sprinted towards Daryl’s motorcycle.

I didn’t even bother to look at the other two cars pulling up as I ran to Daryl who hopped off his bike as soon as he put the kickstand down and I jumped into his arms, clutching the back of his angel wing vest as he held me off the ground in his arms.

“Hey sunshine.” He whispered into my hair and I smiled.

“Hey.” I whispered back.

After a few more moments he set me down and gave me a quick kiss then nodded behind me. I turned and saw Dad, Carl, and Lori all gathered together and ran up to my family.

“JoJo! You’re okay!” Carl cried as I came and joined the group hug.

“You had us so worried, honey.” Lori whispered.

We broke apart and I looked around to see T-Dog, Daryl and Carol standing together, while Glenn stood off to the side of Hershel, Maggie, and Beth embracing. Everyone but Andrea, Patricia, Jimmy, and, of course, Shane.

“Where did you find everyone?” Dad asked Daryl who had been leading all the cars.

“Well,those guys’ tail lights zigzagging all over the road, figured he had to be Asian-driving like that.” Daryl said pointing to Glenn and I rolled my eyes, but smiled at the Glenn laughed.

“Good one. That’s really original.” Glenn said deadpan.

“Where are the others?” Dad asked.

“We’re the only ones who made it so far.” Daryl answered.

“Shane?” Lori asked and Dad shook his head.

“Andrea?” Glenn asked.

“She saved me, then I lost her.” Carol answered.

“We saw her go down.” T-Dog said leaning on the open door of the truck they arrived in. I went and sat down sideways on Daryl’s motorcycle.

“Patricia?” Hershel asked.

Beth let out a loud sob, “They got her, too. Took her right in front of me. I was...I was holdin’ on to her Daddy. She just…” Beth fell against Hershel’s chest in tears.

“What about Jimmy? Did anyone see Jimmy” Maggie asked.

“He pulled the RV up to the barn so Dad and I could escape, but I didn’t see him after that.” I answered.

“It got overrun. He didn’t make it.” Dad hung his head as he answered.

“You definitely saw Andrea? There were walkers everywhere.” Lori asked.

Everyone looked around, but no one had confirmation.

“I’m goin’ back. JoJo, off the bike.” Daryl said walking over to me, but I crossed my arms and stayed firmly planted on the bike.”

“No.” Dad said.

“We can’t just leave her.” Daryl argued grabbing one of my arms and trying to pull me off the bike.

“We don’t even know if she’s there.” Lori pointed out.

“She isn’t there. She isn’t. She’s somewhere else or she’s dead. There’s no way to find her.” Dad said.

“So we’re not even gonna look for here?” Glenn asked.

“Maybe we should wait here. We all knew to come here, maybe she will to.” I suggested.

“We gotta keep moving. There have been walkers crawling all over here.” Dad said. I all of a sudden remembered I had never retrieved my arrow from the walker I shot so I hopped off Daryl’s bike and jogged over to where the dead walker was a pulled it free.

I got back over to the group in time to hear T-Dog suggest, “I think we should head East.”

“Stay off the main roads. The bigger the roads, the more walkers, the more assholes like this one.” Daryl said as he pulled his crossbow off his bike and aimed it, “I got him.” I looked over and saw that a walker was approaching us though it quickly dropped once Daryl landed a bolt in it’s left eye.

……….

Dad, Lori, Carl, Carol, and T-Dog squished into one car while Glenn, Maggie, Beth, and Hershel loaded into another, leaving me and Daryl to ride the motorcycle and leaving the truck abandoned on the highway as we followed T-Dog and Daryl’s suggestion to head east on smaller side roads.

Daryl and I were leading the trail of cars, but stopped when one of the cars honked. I set my legs down on the ground as Daryl killed the engine. 

“You out?” Daryl asked.

“Running on fumes.” Dad answered.

“We can’t stay here.” Maggie said gesturing to where we were parked on the side of an open road.

“We can’t all fit in one car.” Glenn pointed out.

“We’ll have to make a run for gas in the morning.” Dad said.

“Spend the night here?” I asked.

“I’m freezing.” Carl whined. I took my jacket off and handed it to him only to have Daryl pull out his long sleeve shirt and vest and place them over my shoulders which left him in a tanktop.

“We’ll build a fire.” Lori assured everyone.

“Carl, why don’t you look on the side of the road for firewood. Stay close.” I suggested as I looked at the trees surrounding us.

“Only got so many arrows. How we doing on ammo?” Daryl asked.

“Not enough.” I answered.

“We can’t just sit here with our asses hanging out.” Maggie  said.

“Watch your mouth.” Hershel scolded, “Now, everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick.”

“Alright. We’ll set up a perimeter. In the morning we’ll find gas and some supplies. We’ll keep pushing on.” Dad said.

“Glenn and I can make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas and supplies.” Maggie volunteered.

“No. We stay together.” Dad said.

“God forbid something happen and people gets stranded without a car.”  I pointed out.

“Um, Rick, we’re stranded now.” Glenn said.

“I know it looks bad, but we’ve been through Hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn’t sure...I really wasn’t...but we did. We’re together. We keep it that way. We’ll find shelter somewhere. There’s got to be a place.” Dad preached.

“Look around. There are walkers everywhere.” Glenn said.

“It’s like they’re migrating or something.” I said.

“There’s got to be a place not just where we can hole up, but that we can fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a  _ life _ for each other. I know it’s out there, we just have to  _ find _ it.” Dad said.

“Even if we do find a place, and we think it’s safe, we can never be sure. For how long? Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that was safe.” Maggie said.

“We won’t make that mistake again.” Hershel promised.

I looked around and saw some walls built on the side of the road to prevent landslides during rain and hurricanes. They were tall and staggered out enough to provide some cover and to block the wind.

“Look, for tonight, why don’t we just make camp over there, take turns on watch, and hit the road at daybreak.” I suggested and everyone nodded before breaking up and going to grab things from the cars.

“Does this feel right to you?” I heard Carol whisper to Daryl.

“What if a walker comes through? Or another group like Randel’s?” Beth asked Dad.

“You know I found Randel, right? He was turned, but he wasn’t bit.” Daryl confessed, I wanted to add that Shane hadn’t been bitten either, but now would not be the best time to confess that I had seen my dad murder his best friend.

“How’s that possible?” Beth asked.

“What the Hell is happening, Rick?” Lori asked.

“Shane killed Randel. Just like he always wanted to.” Daryl said.

“And then the herd got him?” Lori asked. It bothered me that Lori was asking so many question about the man who had terrorized our group, tried to kill dad, and tried to rape Lori and me. Plus, he was obsessed with the idea that the baby was his, which statistically it was, but Lori said that she wanted it to be dad’s and for him to raise it as his own.

“We’re all infected.” Dad said breaking my train of thought. Everyone turned and looked at him.

“What?” Daryl finally asked.

“At the C.D.C., Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it.” Dad confessed.

“And you never said anything?” Carol asked stepping forward.

“Would it have made a difference?” Dad asked. And I wondered if it would have; if I died I still would have become a walker, but now I know this for a fact. I had already seen it with my own eyes when Shane came back and added on to what Daryl said about Randel it made sense.

“You knew the whole time?” Glenn asked.

“How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that mo-” Dad started.

“That isn’t your call! Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone.” Glenn said.

“Well I thought it best that people didn’t know.” Dad said before turning and walking down the road, Lori quickly following.

“Let’s get the stuff we need for tonight and set up some kind of camp.” I said taking the horse by the reins and leading Carl over to the car to grab our things.

……….

Later, we were all gathered around a small fire and bundled up with blankets and talking quietly to each other. Daryl had been off sitting quietly in a corner, cleaning his crossbow, but I had finally managed to drag him over to everyone else and was now sitting smugly with my back against his chest with his shirt and vest still on; also on this list of accomplishments, I got him to throw on his ponch which he insisted he didn’t need.

“Daryl, can I talk to you for a moment?” Carol asked walking over to us. I turned my head to look at him as he grunted his reply. I placed a gentle kiss on his jawline then stood up to go sit with Carl and Lori.

Leaves rustled in the setting everyone on edge, “What was that?” Beth whispered.

“Could be anything. Raccoon. Opossum.” Daryl said standing and drawing his crossbow.

“Walker.” I added to the list of possibilities. 

“We need to leave, what are we waiting for?” Carol asked.

“Which way?” Glenn asked.

“It came from over there.” Maggie pointed.

“Back from where we came.” Beth pointed out.

“The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark. We don’t have the vehicles. No one’s traveling on foot.” Dad ordered.

Another branch snapped in the distance and I reached for my knife holster.

“No one panic.” Hershel said.

“I’m not sitting here and waiting for another herd to blow through.” Maggie said sounding terrified.

“We need to move now.” Glenn begged.

“No one is going anywhere!” Dad barked waving his gun around.

“Do something.” Carol implored.

“I am doing something! I’m keeping this group together, alive. I’ve been doing that all along no matter what. I didn’t  _ ask _ for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ sake!” Dad screamed his confession. “You all saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randel thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no  _ choice _ ! He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean.” 

At some point Carl had started crying and Lori was quietly rocking him, trying to calm him down. Everyone stood on edge, not looking at each other.

“Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say, there’s a place for us, but maybe it’s another pipe dream. Maybe I’m fooling myself again. Why don’t you-why don’t you go and find out for yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there’s the door. You can do better? Let’s see how far you get. No takers? Fine, but let’s get one thing straight-you’re staying. This isn’t a democracy anymore.” Dad finished.

I had never been more terrified in my entire life than I was right then, watching my dad change before my eyes.

 


End file.
